The Commitment: An Alternate Direction
by Norwesterner
Summary: Most all of us love the way the movie WALL•E ended. But what if things had gone in a different direction? Voted first place winner in eve94's WALL•E First Anniversary fanfic contest. Thanks everyone! Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

_Once again, I gladly thank Disney's Pixar Animation Studios for creating and owning the movie WALL•E and the characters of WALL•E and EVE._

_This story does contain some spoilers from the movie. So you might want to ensure that you've seen the movie first._

_This story is dedicated to all those who commit themselves to the unconditional love and care of others . . ._

— — — — —

_It is theorized that whenever we encounter a fork in life's road, or a pivotal event happens for us where things could go one way or another — while we think we're going down just one path, another "us" may be going down that other path, in another reality or dimension._

_So what happens on that alternate path in time and experience, when EVE spark-kisses WALL•E after rebuilding him, bringing him back from the edge of death . . . and he doesn't wake up as himself . . ._

* * *

EVE could sense now that WALL•E had slipped away from her. His body was still there in front of her. She had rebuilt or replaced so much of him in such a hurry to save him. Maybe she had replaced too much of him.

She no longer knew.

She leaned her head against his blank stare in despair. EVE sadly hummed WALL•E's favorite romantic tune . . . the one he had used to try and set the most romantic mood he could in courting her and trying to win, literally, her hand.

EVE now spark-kissed him. Still nothing. No response.

With great sadness, EVE started to pull away from WALL•E. She had done all she could. Her fingers, intertwined in his hand, remained stuck there for a moment. She wondered if he was keeping them stuck there. But still, there was none of the WALL•E she knew and loved left in the optics of the robot now in front of her. EVE lingered a moment longer . . . hoping, anticipating, expecting, _willing_ him to just wake up — to return to her.

But, her fingers were stuck in his hand, she sadly realized, and that was all.

EVE gently pulled her fingers free, and turned away. But where would she go now? What would she do, now that her directive in finding plant life on Earth was fulfilled? In a sense, her old life had ended, seemingly along with WALL•E's old life.

EVE paused and looked for a moment at WALL•E's truck. She saw places now familiar to her, both through her conscious experience, and through the memories her Security Camera had recorded for her while she was dormant with the plant inside her. EVE found herself replaying those memories now in her head. All those views of WALL•E tending to her while she was dormant — devotedly remaining by her side. Even when he no longer knew what to do for her, EVE now saw WALL•E taking care of her anyway.

EVE tearfully realized that she loved WALL•E. She still loved him. Even if she did not know what to do for him. Even if he was not himself. He never gave up on her. How could she now give up on him?

EVE turned around to find WALL•E had gone back to automatically cubing trash. His optics were still straight, level, and blank; his motions straightforward and repetitive — just as they'd been programmed at the factory over 700 years ago.

She turned her gaze away from him for a moment again . . . wondering what her life would become if she stayed with him, at his side, but he never got better. Never became the WALL•E that she truly loved again.

EVE looked at her Security Camera images one more time. There was WALL•E again, doing everything in the world for her, just because he loved her. He was there, for her . . . seeming even to reach for her across time to where she was now.

EVE decided that she wanted to experience a love like that, even if it was just her giving it. She also wanted to do anything she could for the WALL•E she once knew and loved, even if it was just keeping hope alive for some future she couldn't yet see.

She turned around again, and with a new directive now firmly in place within her, EVE went back to WALL•E. She once again gently stopped WALL•E from what he was doing. He was again confused as to why he'd been interrupted from his directive. EVE took one of his hands with one fin, and with the other fin, she pointed to him, and then to herself.

"Directive . . . WALLL•EEE, EVE's dir-ect-ive," she said slowly and clearly, ensuring he understood.

This new WALL•E didn't comprehend the commitment EVE had just made to him. But he sensed that this probe would now be his guide to the world he found himself in.

This wasn't the love EVE had been striving so hard for just moments ago. But she felt she was in love, and was experiencing love nonetheless. And she had hope. EVE decided she would play and replay her Security Camera images of the WALL•E she loved to sustain that hope, just as WALL•E had once showed her how he played and replayed "Hello Dolly" to sustain his dreams. She resolved she would at least teach this WALL•E about the wonderful consciousness that had preceded him.

EVE put a fin around WALL•E. "End . . . day," she said. "Return . . . truck," she gently instructed, pointing with her other fin towards the home they would now share.

WALL•E briefly looked at EVE, and then obediently engaged his traction motors, and started rolling towards the truck with her.

The other rogue robots had been gathered near the truck watching all of this respectfully, but also sadly silent. EVE now waived them off with a fin.

"Directive . . . alone," she said, without emotion, and without really looking at them.

As the other robots left, not really knowing where to go, M-O turned back towards EVE.

"R-r-r-r-r-ready . . . h-h-h-help," he said in his high-pitched voice — letting EVE know that they all would be there for her, as she was for WALL•E.


	2. Chapter 2

"0645 — Reboot"

EVE's visor came to life.

WALL•E was still in his shelf, dormant.

EVE was grateful to find him still where he was supposed to be. The past several mornings, this new WALL•E, compelled by his low charge alarm, would reboot and run off to recharge and work without EVE realizing it. When she awoke, EVE then frantically searched from the air to find him. She would try and instruct him to awaken her before he left, but it wasn't working. So EVE forced herself to give up dormancy for one night, watching WALL•E until he rebooted in the morning. She then programmed herself to awaken before the time that he would reboot. Although just coming online herself, EVE was relieved her plan worked this morning.

EVE was now awake, watching WALL•E, waiting for him to wake up. For a moment, she was alone with her thoughts. She started to replay her Security Camera images of WALL•E from when she had been dormant with the plant inside her. They had become like a warm hug to EVE in her mind, from the WALL•E she loved.

Oh how she wanted her WALL•E back.

WALL•E's low charge warning alarm started to beep. His eyes sleepily opened, and moaning with grogginess, he groped his way out of his shelf. EVE was there to guide him towards the door, as it was too early for the hole in their roof to be of use. She helped him put on his treads, and opened the truck door for him. It was another bright, sunny day and WALL•E just stopped on the ramp, opening his solar flaps to recharge — having no awareness that he used to go to the roof.

In her own way, EVE was grateful just to be able to help and watch him do this. Sustained by her memories, she was coming to appreciate the simple ways she could just be with him, and help him. EVE just had to periodically remind herself though that this was a different WALL•E, or maybe her WALL•E at his birth.

WALL•E's happy "full charge" chime sounded, and he was ready to go. EVE didn't want him to just start cubing trash again however, not today. She wanted to teach him about so much — everything from who he used to be, to love, "Hello Dolly", everything. She was at a loss though as to where to begin though. She couldn't even communicate at decent speeds to teach him, she realized in frustration.

WALL•E was still looking at her, but after no instructions from her for 60 seconds, he defaulted to starting to his basic directive to scan for trash to be cubed in his surroundings.

"Wait . . ." EVE said to him, "Wait."

WALL•E complied, stopped, and proceeded to stare blankly at her, awaiting further instructions.

All of this was starting to seem overwhelming to EVE. It had only been four days since she had lost her old WALL•E, yet it was seeming like an eternity. She wasn't a teaching bot, a nurse bot, a maintenance bot, nor an engineering and research bot — yet EVE found herself having to be all these to take care of WALL•E now. She was an Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator. She knew plants. That was all she'd been programmed for.

EVE broke down and began sobbing softly, with WALL•E still just staring at her, when M-O and the other rogue robots happened by.

EVE beeped apologies to them in standard _Axiom_ code, saying she just wasn't ready to see them right now. The robots gathered around her though, and lifted her up on their shoulders, as they had once done for WALL•E. That simple gesture touched EVE deeply, and the electronic tears in her visor turned to ones of gratitude. She hovered down and hugged them. It was the first real hug she'd experienced since losing WALL•E.

How he had rubbed off on her in so brief a time, she thought. Before WALL•E, something like hugs had meant nothing to EVE. Now, they felt better than anything else she had ever known.

EVE realized that not only was WALL•E still her primary directive — she strangely felt she almost _belonged_ to WALL•E, even though he wasn't around, except in body. EVE began to grapple with an idea that she was truly awake and self aware for the first time in her centuries of existence. She wanted WALL•E back fully even more now, if nothing else than to give him the gift of herself and her new realizations. EVE remembered with melancholy how much WALL•E had just wanted to hold her hand. Now, she wanted to give him that, and so much more.

Having experienced the other robots helping to lift her spirits, literally — out of the blue, EVE just thought to ask them, "How . . . fix . . . WALL•E?"

M-O just chirped, "O-l-l-d-d-d parrrts . . . WALL•E . . . lab!" PR-T echoed, "Yes darling, just pack everything up over to the lab!"

EVE realized they were right. The _Axiom's_ Diagnostics Lab had a variety of tools and knowledge she lacked. Even if she couldn't fix him there, it dawned on her that she could still learn how to better communicate with him, and he could perhaps even learn about his own past.

EVE turned to WALL•E again. "Stay . . ." she instructed, pointing to the ground. She hated to communicate in orders to him, but they were the only thing this new WALL•E seemed to understand at the moment.

She then turned back to M-O, PR-T, and the other robots, saying, "Watch . . . WALL•E."

With renewed hope and determination, EVE flew rapidly around the inside of WALL•E's truck, retrieving everything she might need over at the lab — WALL•E's damaged motherboard, other circuit boards she'd tossed aside while desperately repairing him, the "Hello Dolly" tape, and more. EVE even plucked the light bulb and the Rubix Cube out of the trash cube that WALL•E had first compacted days ago inside the truck. EVE paused for a moment, remembering how sad she had been to see him make that cube out of his favorite things — how it had given her a sudden sense of dread over him.

EVE put all things she had collected in her bio-stasis chamber. She didn't yet know how she was going to fix WALL•E, to get him back. But EVE was now more determined than ever to try!


	3. Chapter 3

EVE came out of WALL•E's truck, and closed its door. Fortunately she found WALL•E was still right where she instructed him to remain. At least he obeyed clear directions. But EVE was saddened to think she might have to just order WALL•E around for an eternity if she couldn't find a way to bring his old self back.

The other robots had been hovering around WALL•E, both helping EVE keep him where he was, and each trying to find a shred of his old self somehow. EVE found M-O bouncing up and down in front of WALL•E, saying, "M-O, M-O, M-O, M-O," over and over again, trying to get his old pal to recognize him, at least open his hand for a cleaning and handshake. But the new WALL•E just stared unresponsively at M-O, without any curiosity or interest in him.

M-O finally stopped bouncing, looked down, and dropped his brush in dejection. EVE came and put an understanding fin around M-O. WALL•E's absence was hard on all of them. WALL•E had only been with them barely a day and a half on the _Axiom_ in space — but already, their world on Earth now was incomplete without him.

EVE wanted to get on with her mission now to restore WALL•E at the _Axiom's_ Diagnostics Lab, but while she could just pick up WALL•E and fly there, she saw how much the other robots wanted to be a part of this effort. She couldn't fly them all there.

Turning to WALL•E, EVE pointed a fin at herself saying, "Follow . . . EVE." Then, pointing a fin down the path that would lead to the _Axiom_, EVE said, "Directive . . . Lab," and she led a small convoy of bots rolling towards the _Axiom_. EVE started to feel very comforted that she wasn't alone in her quest now to bring WALL•E back. She wanted to express her gratitude to the other robots, to thank them — but she didn't know how.

EVE hovered along next to WALL•E, who just had his hands and arms projected straight in front of him as he went, as programmed. That just didn't feel right to EVE. So she thought it was time for a lesson for the new WALL•E — holding hands. EVE was now going to take advantage of any opportunity to reach him, or at least educate the robot he now was.

EVE moved in front of WALL•E and stopped him.

_How to do this_? EVE looked down and pondered, almost in frustration.

EVE looked into WALL•E's blank gaze. These were the same type of optics he'd always had. Yet in looking into them, EVE felt the terrible absence of a consciousness — a soul that just was no longer deep inside them as he once was. WALL•E's body was moving, but he wasn't there.

_Where are you?_ EVE pleaded in her thoughts as she continued looking into WALL•E's optics. She took his left hand with both her fins, as she tried reaching out in her thoughts, _Please find your way back to us! Please . . ._

EVE, her eyes betraying her growing inner sadness, found herself almost crying again. WALL•E's hand was still not responding to EVE's touch. Her directive and mission snapped her back though. This wasn't helping WALL•E, she realized.

But still, if there was anything that might be gained by holding WALL•E's hand, EVE was going to use it. At the very least, it helped her feel more connected to him. So EVE defaulted to basic instructions.

EVE touched his left hand. "Open . . . ," she instructed.

WALL•E looked down at his fingers as they opened. EVE slowly inserted her fingers among his. "Gentle . . . close . . . ," she continued, observing his fingers gently close around hers. Small progress, but it meant something to EVE. She sadly realized though, as he looked away from their intertwined hands, that it still meant nothing to this WALL•E.

EVE turned back, facing the path ahead, and they continued onwards quietly, with the rest of the robots following behind. At least holding hands this way, WALL•E seemed to match EVE's turns more readily.

_Small progress_, she thought — _small progress._

They came upon several other old WALL•Es permanently frozen in various postures of cubing and stacking trash. EVE wondered if they had ever achieved even part of the awareness her WALL•E had — or were they just like this unit now next to her, simply doing whatever they were instructed, without any curiosity or spark of interest.

EVE had almost passed these WALL•Es, when she got an idea that she might need extra spare parts and components in fixing her WALL•E. She started to move towards them, but found herself being jerked back as her hand was still in WALL•E's.

Did she have to explain or instruct everything in such basic detail to him, she wondered.

With a sigh, EVE pointed to WALL•E's hand with her other fin and instructed, "Open . . ." WALL•E compliantly opened his hand.

"Stay!" she added, almost in exasperation.

EVE then went off to examine the other WALL•Es.

Since these WALL•Es had long been dead, EVE felt no hesitation about opening them up and taking them apart as she needed to. She realized this was a chance to learn more about WALL•E's interior construction and layout, especially his electronic components and onboard computer.

As EVE carefully scanned what she was seeing as she opened up one dead WALL•E unit, she wished she hadn't quite been so frantic in rebuilding her WALL•E as she had that fateful day several days ago. She was finding the circuit boards she was looking at quite simple. How could WALL•E have achieved the awareness he had with such basic circuitry, she wondered. She felt she must be missing something. That sense of puzzlement gave her hope though. EVE felt better.

She wanted to take a number of components with her — several whole WALL•Es, in fact — for further analysis and comparison at the lab. But it would just be easier to get her WALL•E and the rest of the robots to the lab first, and then come back for the best of these units. After all, they weren't going anywhere, EVE realized.

She returned to WALL•E and the other robots, hovering down next to him. "Close . . ." she instructed him with a sigh and sense of resignation as she took his hand again that had simply remained open, just as she'd left it. EVE _really_ hoped she wasn't going to have to live like this with WALL•E forever.

But a brief clip of her Security images that her primary directive brought up, reminded EVE of what she had chosen out of love to do for her WALL•E — of the commitment she had made to him, no matter what. And if there was one thing EVE prided herself on, it was pursuing and completing her directives. This directive though, meant more to EVE than any other ever had.

As they all resumed their trek towards the _Axiom_, EVE looked at WALL•E as he once again stared blankly ahead.

_You are somewhere_, EVE thought. _And I am going to find you._


	4. Chapter 4

EVE, WALL•E, and the other robots arrived at the _Axiom_, and made their way to the Repair Ward. Despite being docked on Earth, the ship was still busy — busier in fact, with robots and humans both starting to move the first supplies and equipment ashore as they began to explore, and consider how to re-colonize the world around them.

When they reached the Repair Ward, EVE and the others found a line of dysfunctional robots stretching out its doors and down the corridor, with Steward-bots trying to keep order. Not only did a dusty Earth climate not agree with the _Axiom's_ robots, who were used to cleaner environments — but no one had told these robots about the dust storms that periodically swept through the area. A number of battered, sand-blasted robots were still in line, having survived a storm a couple of days ago.

EVE stopped her group, and shook her head in frustration. She had not led them all this way simply to turn back, or wait for possibly days until they could get WALL•E into the Diagnostics Lab. Even when they got WALL•E into the lab, EVE realized they would need space to analyze not only his old parts, but those of the other WALL•E units she had found as well.

This was all starting to seem like a daunting task to EVE. But that only made her more determined . . . even angry!

"Stay!" EVE told WALL•E and the other robots, as she flew off in search of another space onboard that might meet their needs.

In her past life as an Extra-terrestial Vegetation Evaluator, EVE had never spent much conscious time at all roaming the _Axiom_. She only knew a fraction of its spaces. She didn't even know whom to ask where a good space might be for her to take WALL•E.

For a moment, EVE began to think that life was so much easier when she was following clear, pre-planned directives! But that life now seemed so empty to her in comparison to the few days she had spent with WALL•E. No, there was no turning back for EVE, no giving up, no surrender. She wanted to share a wonderful love and future with WALL•E, and would settle for nothing less. EVE began to feel a marvelous new surge of determined energy as she flew along the _Axiom's_ corridors.

She found herself emerging out onto the Lido Deck. EVE thought about going to the bridge and asking the Captain, so she made her way to the Bridge Elevator Lobby off the Lido Deck, and encountered the Typing-bot, still endlessly plodding away at his keyboard.

She was about to ask his permission to proceed to the bridge, when EVE paused and thought, out of the blue again, to just ask Typing-bot if he knew of any suitable spare engineering workshop spaces. So she beeped her question to him in _Axiom_ code.

In his centuries of work in that one room, at that one keyboard, no one had ever before asked Typing-bot his opinion on anything. Yet he was tied, literally, into all the ship's systems.

In his plodding way, he asked EVE what she wanted to do. It took ages for Typing-bot to even beep a simple question, but EVE was patient.

EVE chirped back that she wanted a space where she could analyze and repair WALL•E, as he had lost his memory.

Did she mean the little robot who once did this at him, Typing-bot asked through slow beeps and waving, as he just didn't know what to call it.

_Yes,_ she beeped back.

At that, the Typing-bot slowly hit a few keys on his keyboard. He pointed to a screen next to him showing EVE that he was assigning her exclusive use of the _Axiom's_ best diagnostics center down in Engineering.

He hit a few more keys. Words appeared along the bottom of the screen, saying simply, "Thank you WALL•E."

Seeing this, EVE became tearfully grateful and squealed with joy. She slowly approached Typing-bot so as not to startle him, and reached out and gave Typing-bot his first hug. Initially, as with WALL•E's waving, Typing-bot did not know what to make of EVE's hug. But in his own way, it warmed him.

EVE beeped again, expressing her gratitude and asking Typing-bot if there was anything she could ever do for him.

Typing-bot paused, and then slowly beeped back to just bring WALL•E by when he was better.

As EVE turned to depart, Typing-bot beeped again, asking her to wait as he pecked at some more keys. Two Steward-bots showed up with "PRIORITY ASSISTANT / ESCORT" written on their screens.

EVE turned to Typing-bot to see him happily waving. She waved back at him as she departed, leading the Steward-bots back to where she had left WALL•E and the others.

When EVE returned with the Steward-bots, the others cowered in fear . . . except for the new WALL•E, who didn't know any better. She quickly reassured them through beeps that they had nothing to worry about — the Steward-bots were assigned to help them. The other robots looked at each other confused, but EVE didn't want to take the time to explain. She was eager to get started.

EVE directed the Steward-bots to fetch a hover transport. As WALL•E couldn't hover, it would be a quicker way to get him to Engineering, she reasoned. They soon returned with the transport, and EVE lifted WALL•E onboard, directing him to stay put. Realizing he might appreciate it, EVE invited M-O to sit in the transport's driver's seat, normally reserved for GO-4 units. M-O hopped in, beeping with delight and pride!

EVE beeped at the Steward-bots, instructing them to take her group to the Engineering Lab. Still amazed at this V.I.P. treatment after battling the Steward-bots as enemies only four days before; the other robots hovered behind as EVE, WALL•E and M-O departed aboard the transport, with the Steward-bots leading the way towards Engineering.

Navigating along the service corridors, and through the ship's Engine Room with its massive power units — EVE's group arrived at the main Engineering Diagnostics Lab as its wide doors slid open. Inside, they encountered an incredible array of gleaming tables, robot arms, scanning equipment, even assembly units capable of manufacturing any components imaginable. Neither EVE nor the other robots had ever been here before, or could have even imagined of being granted access to such an important space. But now, it was all theirs.

EVE looked around the room with a happy, purposeful satisfaction. Her goal of bringing WALL•E back, which once seemed so distant, now began to feel within her reach.

Ready to get down to work, EVE lifted WALL•E off the transport and over to a scanning table, where she once again told him to, "Stay."

She directed PR-T and the others to ensure that WALL•E stayed put, and then instructed the Steward-bots and M-O in the transport to follow her back out of the ship to where she'd found the other WALL•E units. Having a transport would make the job of moving the dead WALL•Es she wanted go so much faster, EVE marveled.

Arriving back at the trash pile where the other WALL•Es were; EVE quickly picked out two of the best WALL•Es she'd found earlier, and lifted them onto the transport. She then quickly beeped at M-O to come back with the Steward-bots and pick up two more WALL•Es that she was pointing to, adding that he was in charge. M-O was never so happy in his life at hearing that, and beeped so excitedly that he was stuttering even worse than usual!

EVE was now realizing how to thank her robot friends — simply by allowing them to share in the growing sense of purpose and excitement she was feeling at the prospect of actually being able to bring WALL•E back.

With the first two extra WALL•E units safely on the transport and tied down with energy bands, EVE and M-O drove the transport back to the _Axiom_ and the Engineering Lab. With their sirens sounding, the Steward-bots cleared the way for them along the ship's crowded corridors.

There was a lot of work ahead, EVE realized — and her practical subroutines cautioned her that success was not assured.

But EVE couldn't help letting out an audible, almost triumphant, "Yes!" as she and M-O zipped down the final few corridors to Engineering on the transport.

_Watch out, WALL•E_, EVE thought. _Here I come!_


	5. Chapter 5

_Author's Note:_

_Sorry for the long absence — but at this point, the story required me to go into a lot of thought and research to develop a continuation of the plot that would be both as plausible and satisfying as the story has been so far. I've also lost my "muse" for a while — as WALL•E stopped playing in theatres, and the DVD hadn't come out yet. I've found I need periodic viewings of the movie to keep me adequately connected to WALL•E's world._

_Just to be clear, spoken English words appear in quotations, while internal thoughts and translated Axiom code beeps appear in italics._

_My thanks to all of you for reading and reviewing this story so far the way you have! I deeply appreciate your interest!_

_The muse has struck with a couple of changes both early and now late in this chapter since original posting, so enjoy._

_So here at last, is the next chapter of EVE and WALL•E's Commitment along an alternate path . . ._

* * *

The _Axiom's_ Engineering Lab doors slid open as EVE and M-O zipped in on the hover transport with the first two dead WALL•E units. They came upon a tableau of dormant robots surrounding a dormant WALL•E on a scanning table, right where EVE had left them earlier. With all she and M-O had been doing outside in collecting the other WALL•E units, EVE became a little irritated that everyone else in the lab had just decided to do nothing and take a nap! But, EVE's directive pointed out to her that the other robots had indeed fulfilled their directive of keeping WALL•E where he was and safe while EVE and M-O were away.

All the robots came back online though in response to EVE and M-O's arrival, and the Lab began to take on a sudden air of busyness again.

PR-T came up to EVE proudly saying, "Mission accomplished, darling! He's still right where you instructed. We just told him to sleep!" . . . without mentioning that the rest of them went to sleep as well.

EVE's eyes softened into happy crescents as she realized everyone was indeed pitching in as best they knew how. She hugged PR-T in gratitude, as PR-T exclaimed, "Oh my," in a somewhat surprised and confused tone.

WALL•E woke up and began to stir on the table. EVE almost dropped PR-T, eliciting yet another, but more panicked, "OH MY!" from PR-T, as EVE rushed over towards WALL•E, once again ordering, "Stay!"

WALL•E obediently stopped . . . but he teetered over the edge anyway!

_*Crash!*_ went WALL•E onto the deck of the lab, as EVE screamed, "NOOOOOOO!"

EVE was immediately at WALL•E's side, setting him upright, as bits of his now crushed right optic tinkled to the deck. EVE just hugged WALL•E for a moment, while his right optic tried in vain to focus itself over and over. Fortunately, the rest of him seemed largely undamaged.

EVE looked at WALL•E and wished he didn't seem to forget everything she'd told him every time he woke up. With WALL•E at times, EVE was starting to feel that she was starting over with him from the beginning, again and again.

After picking him up and setting him back on the table, and telling him, "Stay", yet again; EVE focused on repairing WALL•E. She opened and reached into her stasis chamber for a replacement right optic, but gave out a groan of frustration when she failed to find one in there among the parts she had collected in haste. Glancing over at the two dead WALL•E units still on the hover transport however, EVE realized with relief that she now had plenty of spare parts on hand for WALL•E. She hovered over and picked the best right optic she saw on one of them, and brought it back to her WALL•E. After taking his damaged optic off, she attached the new optic, and it happily whirred into focus. Ready to go, WALL•E looked at EVE once again, blankly, for his next instructions.

EVE sighed in relief. At moments like this, her old directive of simply scanning for plants started to look good again. She just couldn't return his empty gaze for long though, otherwise emotions of sadness would once again overwhelm her. EVE snapped herself back to focus on the task at hand.

Picking up and moving WALL•E safely back to the center of the table, EVE paused as she looked around, while accessing her directive and contemplating what to do next.

_. . . Table . . . WALL•E . . . old WALL•E units . . . scan_ . . .

The elements before her came together.

EVE then moved into action. Lifting both of the dead WALL•E units off the hover transport, she beeped at M-O, sending him and the Stewart Bots away to fetch the other two old WALL•E robots from outside that she'd instructed M-O about earlier.

Then as M-O and the Steward Bots left with the hover transport, EVE lifted and placed one of the old WALL•E units alongside her WALL•E on the table. She proceeded to beep instructions at the table in _Axiom_ code, _Full analytic scan of units present. Display results on panel._

A panel and holographic display obediently emerged at the side of the table, as twin blue light beams from both the table and overhead began illuminating and sweeping across WALL•E and his deceased counterpart.

_Display complete WALL•E Class reference specifications and schematics_, EVE beeped to the table. A second holographic display emerged alongside the first, bombarding EVE with data and drawings at a dizzying pace. She calmly took it all in though, as she began to absorb and process the displayed information, looking at both screens at the same time.

For a moment, EVE allowed herself to realize that WALL•E's universe, at least who he was physically, was being revealed to her. Through new subroutines about love that her directive was still creating within her, EVE began to experience a sense of awe and wonder for the first time about WALL•E and who, and what, he was. Even her old Security Camera records of WALL•E began playing amid this mix of streaming data, feelings, and codified emotions. For an instant, EVE became immersed in an appreciation and a growing awareness of all that she was learning and perceiving about WALL•E. It became a symphony of images, words, sounds, and strange new sensations. She became unaware of consciously assimilating data, as she just stared into the screens before her. WALL•E and all that he was, just began swirling around EVE in her mind.

_Is this what love is? Is this what life feels like?_ EVE began to ask herself, as she became lost in wonder. WALL•E was everywhere around her now. Everything began to blend into a harmonious music of awareness and sensation.

_Warning: Data input and analysis rates in excess of internal limits! _Suddenly, her new world was interrupted.

_. . . Processors and circuitry beginning to exceed upper temperature limits. Rates now being reduced to acceptable parameters._ EVE's internal systems diagnostics chimed in to her, as automatic subroutines kicked in, slowing down EVE's reading of the data on the screens, and even her own thinking.

EVE had to beep instructions to the table to slow down data presentation rates as well to a level that her systems could handle, as she let out an audible groan of frustration. EVE hated when she ran up against these kinds of internal limitations. It was almost like arguing with herself.

Shocked back into the real world, and her own limitations — EVE's directive once again kicked in, forcing her to refocus on the task at hand.

_Search for anomalies and differences between units present and reference schematics_, EVE instructed her own analytical subsystems.

It was all she could think to constructively do with the incoming data at the moment. EVE had to admit to herself that she still had no real idea or plan of what to do next towards bringing her WALL•E back.

_Processing_, her subsystems replied, as they now more independently resumed their work further away from EVE's conscious thinking.

_Time to results?_ EVE internally queried her subsystems.

_At current rates, complete results and comparisons available in 3.8 hours, estimated,_ her subsystems responded.

EVE sighed. She broke her focus for a moment.

"Break . . . dormancy . . . recharge" EVE turned and instructed the other bots — realizing it was pointless to just have them waiting around for hours, just looking at her, before she could tell them what to do next.

"Return 3.8 hours," she added as the other robots departed for their various familiar charging stations and ready-bays around the _Axiom_.

Suddenly, EVE found herself alone in the lab for the first time with WALL•E and his two dead counterparts. She had periodically spent long periods by herself on Earth in the past, scanning for signs of living vegetation.

Yet she had never felt so strangely alone as she did now.

Even though WALL•E was with her, he wasn't.

Before uncomfortable emotions could surface within her though, EVE returned to the panel and screens in front of her at the table, and beeped for the analytical data streams to resume.

Fatigued by all that she had done, experienced, and felt through the day though, EVE decided to allow her conscious mind to go dormant and rest, while her analytical subsystems continued to process the data her eye forms would continue to take in without her thinking about it.

"Rest . . . dormant." she instructed WALL•E before EVE allowed her own consciousness to go offline.

WALL•E compliantly cubed up on the table, while the long-deceased counterpart next to him remained in the ready pose it had held now for centuries. The blue scanning beams continued to methodically sweep back and forth over and under both of them.

EVE then remembered to transmit a message. She began tapping on the table's panel to M-O, letting him know in _Axiom_ code that she would be offline, processing scans and data on WALL•E, for the next 3.8 hours . . . and to please not disturb her!

Almost instantaneously, the panel displayed a response back from M-O, also in _Axiom_ code . . .

_Acknowledged,_ his message simply read. What exactly M-O would be doing for the next 3.8 hours, his message didn't say. But EVE didn't worry about it — M-O wasn't much for words anyway, she realized.

EVE allowed herself to consciously relax, knowing that everything was now taken care of for the next several hours.

EVE mused to her WALL•E in her last conscious thoughts — wondering if she could somehow be together with his true, inner presence that she loved . . . somehow immerse herself in that harmonious music of him again . . . at least for a while in what humans called dreams, as her own awareness began to fade out.

_Play WALL•E Security Camera Records_, she instructed to herself.

Black and white images and sounds of her WALL•E proceeded to comfort and warm EVE inside her mind as she drifted off . . .


	6. Chapter 6

"Eeeevaaah!" EVE heard.

"WALL•E!" she immediately responded.

EVE could hear WALL•E's voice echoing around her, but she couldn't see him. Everything was a blur.

"Eeeevaaah!"

"WALL•E!" she called again.

EVE wanted to reach out, search, even scan for WALL•E. But nothing was happening. She seemed frozen, unable to do anything.

"WALL•EEEE!" EVE tried to reach out to him again just by calling to him.

"Eeee-Eeee-Eeee-vaaah!"

_Scan results and comparisons of WALL•E units now complete and available._

EVE came online with a start.

"Eeee-vaaaaaaaaah!"

Her Security Camera images of WALL•E were still playing in her mind. EVE shut them off.

She was shocked and confused. EVE felt she had just been close to WALL•E, but suddenly yanked away from him to the world and awareness she now found herself in. Suddenly, sadness again overwhelmed her, and EVE found herself crying beside the scanning table.

The sound of her crying awoke WALL•E's cube. Twin optics dutifully emerged, looked down, and focused on the source of the soft noises. WALL•E's systems processed what was visible and audible before them, but no evolved consciousness was present within that cube who could understand or care — just the beginnings of objective, clinical curiosity. The optics stared vacantly at EVE as she cried.

EVE's audio sensors heard WALL•E stir, and she looked up at him with tearful eyes, into the optics that were looking at her. The unemotional, uncaring, blank stare she now faced sent a cold shock — a stab — right through her. His optics offered no warmth, no kindness, no hint of the consciousness she had come, even committed herself, to love. His mind was gone. His stare was now just the gaze of blank oblivion, of icy nothingness.

EVE wailed in pain as she shut her eyes to the chilling sight, and shielded her visor in her fins.

Seeing that EVE and was she was doing was not a threat or obstacle to him, nor was she trash to be cubed; WALL•E's primary directive instructed him to begin moving in search of trash to cube, and his treads engaged.

EVE heard WALL•E begin to move amid her painful crying. It was all she could do to look up at him and convey her now usual instruction.

"St-t-t-a-y-y-y," EVE said haltingly amid sobs.

WALL•E obediently stopped . . . this time before falling off the table.

EVE then found her consciousness being overridden by her primary WALL•E directive. Her crying subsided, her mind cleared.

But while the pain she'd been feeling just seconds ago was now diminished, it was not cleared away along with everything else that had been interfering with her primary directive.

EVE queried her internal directive processor, _Why are these negative sensations still present?_

The answer came back, _Sensations associated with love are protected and allowed to continue by this chosen directive. Sensation levels have been reduced however to allow normal functioning towards fulfillment of this directive. Do you wish to amend directive and delete sensations?_

_No, _EVE responded amid mild surprise._ Interrogative concluded. Resume functions._

EVE paused a moment as she processed and integrated all that she'd just experienced.

_Scan results and comparisons of WALL•E units now complete and available_, her analytical subsystems repeated to her.

_Curious_, EVE suddenly thought. She now found the diminished pain was actually giving her strength to resume her work towards bringing WALL•E back. It was actually serving to amplify her directive and sense of purpose.

EVE felt better.

_Scan results and comparisons of WALL•E units now complete and available_, her analytical subsystems repeated to her again.

EVE readied herself. _Access results and comparisons_, she instructed as she immersed herself in study.

The previous swirls and masses of data and images of WALL•E, his dead counterpart, and the reference schematics, were now organized within her consciousness and presented on her visor. EVE proceeded through a list of anomalies and differences among the two robots and their class specifications, each linked to more detailed scan results and reference data. She quickly dismissed irrelevant differences like, dents, scratches, and rust marks. These would not lead to bringing WALL•E back. EVE sorted them all out, and put them in an internal sub-file she labeled _Cosmetic Differences_.

Shed of these irrelevancies, the list before EVE in her consciousness was now much shorter. EVE proceeded.

_Storm Sensor. Detects approaching dust and other environmental disturbances commonly known as storms,_ EVE read to herself. _This device is neither in the class specifications, nor onboard the inactive WALL•E unit,_ the report noted.

EVE accessed the data link on this list item. Three-dimensional visual graphics, accompanied by narration began inside EVE's consciousness. _Within only the active WALL•E unit, the Storm Sensor is linked to both the red unit on/off status LED light, which has been adapted to serve as a visual alert for this sensor, and to a connection with the main optics data processor, which also feeds alerts for this sensor into the main information processor. None of these modifications are present in either the class specifications or the inactive WALL•E unit. Storm sensor is functional and online._

_WALL•E, how did you know to do this to yourself?_ EVE pondered.

EVE started to realize she would likely be dealing with a number of WALL•E's now as she searched for answers and solutions towards bringing her WALL•E back. She couldn't call them all just WALL•E, and designating them "Active WALL•E Unit" or "Inactive WALL•E Unit" would slow even her rapid data processing abilities down to a degree. So she began giving both her internal systems, and the table, instructions to keep the WALL•Es in her life organized.

_Designate active WALL•E unit present as WALL•E 1, inactive unit present as WALL•E 2, and all other WALL•E units presented for analysis with increasing numeric designations in sequence._ EVE instructed.

With that done, EVE turned her attention to considering how WALL•E had been able to modify himself.

_Access references for WALL•E class computational and deductive capabilities_, _report deviations present, _she instructed the report before her.

_No computational or deductive capability deviations present in WALL•E 2. Results inconclusive for WALL•E 1,_ the report responded. _Circuitry and system anomalies do exist in WALL•E 1. Scan results cannot determine the function or purpose of some deviations. Some anomalous circuits are also incomplete._

This both puzzled and intrigued EVE._ List described circuitry and system deviations and anomalies_, she instructed.

The report then automatically opened a link to a sub-list of circuitry deviations and anomalies scans had found within WALL•E. While it wasn't that long, amid the line items of anomalous circuits, chips, and wiring pathways, EVE found herself once again overwhelmed and not knowing where to go with this new data. She was a Vegetation Evaluator. She was not programmed as an engineer.

EVE found herself interrupted as the lab doors opened, and M-O and the Steward-bots entered with the two additional dead WALL•E units onboard — right on time at 3.8 hours. The other robots followed in as well.

EVE squinted her eye forms as she noticed something was different about the two WALL•E units that M-O had just brought in. As one unit reflected a glint of light at her, EVE was struck by the deduction — M-O had spent the last 3.8 hours cleaning the dead WALL•E units! While he didn't have the paint nor the parts available to fully refurbish them, M-O had inadvertently made these two dead units in many ways look better now than the living WALL•E!

EVE inwardly smiled as she appreciated M-O's dedication to his cleaning directive.

As M-O brought the hover transport to a stop near the scanning table, the halt jarred open a loose, dented panel on one of the dead WALL•E units, and its motherboard fell out, clattering down onto the lab's deck.

Detecting the noise, EVE turned to look down at the fallen motherboard. Upon seeing it, her primary directive and analytical systems focused on it. As she had experienced with WALL•E's plant, EVE found her optical scanners automatically locking on the motherboard and highlighting it, as links from the analytical report began bombarding her with images and data. Even alarms were going off in her head, indicating she had found something truly important to her primary directive.

It was exciting when EVE's systems involuntarily did this to her the first time she fulfilled a primary directive, when WALL•E introduced her to his plant. But now EVE was beginning to find these discovery moments irritating.

_Discontinue alarms, discontinue override,_ EVE instructed her systems as she emitted an audible groan of annoyance.

. . . _And don't do that to me again!_ she added for good measure. Her now chastened systems dutifully took note.

With EVE feeling back in control of herself, she focused on what her directive and analytical subroutines had been trying to tell her.

While still irritated at her systems and their way of seizing her attention, EVE had to concede they were right — the motherboard could be key to finding WALL•E's true self and bringing him back. EVE realized with a shock though that she hadn't even included WALL•E's old motherboard in her search for system anomalies! While she had scanned his cube thoroughly, EVE remembered that the motherboard he now used was one that she had replaced, and was not his original.

With relief however, EVE remembered she had brought as many of WALL•E's old parts that she had cast aside in her frenetic rebuilding of him, as she could find. Her systems gently reminded her that they were even still inside her own Bio-stasis Chamber!

Somewhat chagrined, EVE now opened her chamber and allowed its contents to spill out onto the scanning table.

_Scan motherboard and other parts present for anomalies,_ she beeped to the table.

_Incorporate new data into WALL•E analysis,_ EVE instructed her own analytical subsystems, as the scans began to appear on the table's holographic displays.

_Progress,_ EVE thought to herself. It wasn't a statement, but an earnest request, a plea — to what or whom, she didn't know. But EVE really wanted, even needed, a positive break at this point, as the table and her own subsystems did their assigned work.

"WALL•E . . ." EVE said out loud in a sad, searching tone. It was the first time she had spoke his name out loud in some time. EVE reached over and took WALL•E's hand, as she looked at him with earnestness in her eye forms. EVE felt she was doing all she could to find WALL•E. She once again found herself fighting off despair.

WALL•E's optics continued their fixed, blank gaze towards her. His directive had been overridden. He had been given nothing to do but stay. So his systems complied, and they just awaited the next instruction from the probe who was giving him directives.

"Help me . . ." EVE pleaded aloud as she looked at WALL•E. She stopped her speech though, as she realized this would only confuse the current WALL•E.

At her spoken words, WALL•E's optics came to life for a moment. They whirred as the focused on EVE, then on his hand in hers, then ahead of him, and back to EVE again. WALL•E's directive was thoroughly confused by this command of hers, but all it could do was to blink the power/storm sensor light on and off, as a default indication that the command was not understood or complied with.

EVE knew the current WALL•E well enough to detect its confusion. "Stay," she said reassuringly, summoning the inner strength of her directive for him, even if he couldn't appreciate it. WALL•E went back to the way he was — motionless and staring blankly at EVE, awaiting her next instruction.

But EVE turned on her Security Records of him.

_Help me find you._ EVE completed her plea mentally, talking to those black and white images of him. It was the only way she could think of to speak to her WALL•E. Her yearning to connect somehow with him, even to get the simplest request to the consciousness she loved, moved EVE profoundly, almost to tears.

_Scan data streams from table interrupted. _EVE's systems alerted her.

EVE realized she had inadvertently looked away from the table's holographic screen as she was making her plea, both outwardly and inwardly, to WALL•E.

With almost the resignation of returning to a tough job, EVE once more cleared her mind, refocused on her directive, and resumed reading data from the table's display.

But given that this concept called love seemed so ethereal, indefinable, and even illogical to EVE — even though it was at the same time strangely satisfying to her — she was nonetheless pleased that she had used an equally unscientific means to try reaching out to WALL•E in her search for him. EVE wasn't going to leave any possibility unaddressed.

_Scans complete,_ the table soon alerted her.

_Analysis complete,_ her subsystems added shortly afterward, as they quickly integrated the relatively light amount of latest data into their previous work.

_Report findings on latest parts analyzed,_ EVE instructed her systems.

_Subject motherboard exhibits significant damage, which appears to have been caused by an electrical surge from direct contact with an outside source, _the report stated.

_Hypothetical — theorize functions and deviations if motherboard was repaired,_ EVE instructed the report.

Soon, a three-dimensional image of the damaged motherboard was being magically repaired to look as good as new, as it spun around before EVE in her visor. Its virtual circuits were now highlighted and analyzed in succession before the report announced,_ Subject motherboard possesses no significant deviations from WALL•E Class specifications._

EVE was shocked in sad disbelief.

_Surely, this must be the key,_ she thought.

_Report any minor deviations present in the motherboard or related systems,_ EVE instructed to the report, with a degree of desperation.

_Aside from damage, subject motherboard has no deviations,_ the report continued. _However, a data cable emanating from a junction near the motherboard on WALL•E 1 deviates from WALL•E Class specifications. It is currently not connected to any other processor or circuit board. This anomaly was listed previously._

Amid all that had been happening, EVE had forgotten about the original list of anomalies.

_Cross-reference previous list of deviations and anomalies with latest findings,_ EVE instructed the report. _Analyze possible function of missing component that would be connected to this cable. Also, limit analysis of functions to those that would enable development of independent reasoning, awareness, and personality subroutines._

The report began to display a revised list of anomalies that met the criteria, as accompanying narration in EVE's mind began to explain, _Missing component is likely a processor facilitating subroutines consistent with specified criteria and capabilities, in connection with other circuitry, memory storage, and processors._

EVE audibly sighed in almost tearful relief. This wasn't a dead end after all.

PR-T, M-O, and the others came up beside EVE in curiosity at the sigh she was making.

EVE was about to waive them away, but then she paused. This was their quest, too, she realized. They deserved to know, even to see, what was going on.

So EVE typed instructions to the table's panel, and initiated a reverse wireless data link from an emitter on her front to the table. Suddenly, a new holographic display emerged from the table, and everyone could see what EVE was seeing on her visor, and hear the narration she was, now spoken by the ship's computer as well as in writing in _Axiom_ code. The robots gathered close around. M-O loudly bounced up and down in protest until VN-GO lifted M-O up on his painting arm, allowing M-O to see as well.

With everyone now watching in anticipation, EVE beeped to the report on the display, _insert virtual representation of subject processor into virtual representation of WALL•E 1 and analyze associated connecting systems and functions consistent with specified criteria._

Obediently, virtual images of the processor and WALL•E merged together on the holographic display. Circuits from the processor lit up in succession throughout WALL•E's rotating virtual cube, as analysis data streamed alongside.

EVE watched in anticipation. But she felt good, as she was not alone as she waited for whatever the answers were to come.

The results began to stream on the screen beside the images, as the ship's computer began to speak, echoing around the lab, "Connections from hypothetical subject processor connect with nonstandard memory storage cards, as well as additional processors, which are present in WALL•E 1, but not included in WALL•E Class specifications."

EVE's eyes grew wide as she computed the implications._ Could this processor be the missing connection to WALL•E?_ EVE desperately hoped as she tapped her hands together in nervous anticipation, the way WALL•E did.

_Specify type of processor necessary for these functions,_ EVE requested.

The computer responded, "The processor necessary to support these functions would be a BNL Type 17 Memory and Reasoning Processor, which would incorporate non-volatile, solid-state memory, capable of storing specified subroutines related to independent reasoning, awareness, and personality, combined with sufficient data processing capacities to support operation of these subroutines. The Type 17 Processor was not originally specified in WALL•E Class robots, but available historical records indicate subject processor and other circuitry was installed experimentally in one or more WALL•E units with the goal of improving their efficiency and performance, prior to the BNL decision to abandon Operations Clean-up and Re-colonize."

_Can subject processor be produced and installed in WALL•E 1?_ EVE beeped to the table.

"Yes." the computer responded, as a team of several large and small robot engineering surgeons, as well as surgical arms, suddenly appeared from nearby walls and ceilings.

"Awaiting authorization to proceed with request," the computer announced.

"Yes," EVE responded nervously . . . but nothing happened.

Then EVE's memory systems reminded her of the last computer authorization she had witnessed the Captain make on the bridge.

"Uhhhhhh," EVE said, trying again using a somewhat altered voice.

"Authorization accepted." the computer responded.

EVE was pleased that her attempt to imitate the Captain had worked.

Now the state of the art engineering surgical team went to work on WALL•E. He was initially confused, and struggled a little as the team of robots and arms turned him on his back and secured him to the table with energy bands. But he was soon sedated with a red robot repair control cord.

EVE and the other robots moved back to give the engineering surgical team room to work as they proceeded to open WALL•E up. A robot arm soon arrived with the specified Type 17 processor. The team then proceeded to solder and make all the connections and tests that had been included in that one seemingly simple request.

As the team worked, EVE closed her eyes and clasped her hands together, and called out to WALL•E in her consciousness . . . _Come back, WALL•E. Please come back._


	7. Chapter 7

What had taken less than a minute had seemed like eons for EVE, as the robotic engineering surgical team installed the Type 17 Processor inside WALL•E.

This had to work, EVE felt. Otherwise she didn't know what else she could do to bring the WALL•E she loved back. So she willed it with all her inner strength to work.

_WALL•E, come back to me, now._ EVE thought forcefully with full concentration.

The robotic team of surgeons closed WALL•E's front access panel, set him upright on the scanning table, and moved back. A robot arm then pressed a yellow button on the red robot repair control cord, and WALL•E began to come online.

EVE and the other robots cautiously moved closer to the table.

WALL•E's optics and arms slowly emerged straight and rigid, in his type's original pre-programmed fashion.

So far, nothing had changed.

EVE summoned courage from her directive, and hovered up to the table in front of WALL•E. She cleared her mind of worry, of doubt, and brought her love subroutines forward, letting them fill her consciousness with the warmest care she could muster for him.

"WALL•E?" she gently questioned — ready, even hoping, to welcome him back, with a cautious smile in her voice and eye forms.

WALL•E looked up at her and stared. His optics whirred slightly to focus on her. Then they stopped, remaining motionless.

EVE then took WALL•E's left hand. He briefly looked down at it as she took his hand into hers, and then his optics returned to looking at her.

And then nothing.

A cold shock washed through EVE.

"WALL•E?" she asked again.

WALL•E looked at her as vacantly as ever, motionless.

"No," EVE said softly, as she shook her head. "No."

She fought back tears. _No. No sadness. Not now. I am going to save you, get you back, _she thought fervently to herself.

EVE fought to maintain rational control of herself as she never had before. Her emotional subroutines wanted to explode in sadness, rage, and tears, but that, her directive reminded her, would not help WALL•E.

She felt WALL•E was right on the edge of being saved, that she was on the verge of bringing him back. There was just one or more elements or details still missing. Just something else that had to be done, or found, or activated.

EVE drove, even willed herself into action.

"Stay," she commanded WALL•E once again, as she let go his hand and zoomed down to the table's control panel in a blur. EVE typed and beeped at a staccato pace at the table, ordering up every manner of diagnostics. The lab flew into action with the robot surgical team returning, and scanning beams flying all around WALL•E.

The diagnostic results started coming back at EVE, even overlapping. _Main Power on . . . Type 17 Processor online and functioning . . . Primary Systems online and functioning . . ._ they reported.

Everything was checking out. His cube and systems, even the Type 17 Processor, seemed to be working fine. Yet WALL•E's consciousness was still horribly absent.

"No!" EVE said, struggling to fight off the logic of hopelessness. She turned on her WALL•E security images again inside her consciousness. "WALL•E . . . Remember WALL•E," she said to herself as she clung to her memories of him with all her directive strength to keep her emotional subroutines from unleashing waves of sadness and despair within her.

_Memories . . . memories . . ._ EVE kept repeating to herself, clinging to her directive, shutting out all else, trying with all her will to refuse to admit the cold logic of surrender and defeat to her consciousness. _Mem-o-ry . . . MEMORY!_ A flash of hope suddenly re-energized her.

_Scan all memory systems in WALL•E 1,_ EVE rapidly beeped to the table. _Ensure all memory components and circuitry are interfaced with the Type 17 Processor and functioning!_ she urgently commanded in _Axiom_ code.

The ship's computer responded as WALL•E's memory systems appeared on the table's holographic display, "Memory systems and resources in WALL•E 1 identified and analyzed. Memory systems are incomplete, and some data and code found within the memory systems of WALL•E 1 is not accessible. Subroutines necessary to access unreadable data and code stored on non-volatile memory chips are not present in currently installed Type 17 Processor. Subject data and code is not readable by any known system or subroutine available onboard the _Axiom_."

EVE beeped in desperation, _Can subject data and code be analyzed and decoded?_

The computer answered back, "This request would require a common frame of reference to begin analyzing and decoding subject data and code. Based on scans of the subject data, such a frame of reference cannot be identified. The subject data and code cannot therefore be analyzed, decoded, read, or incorporated within the active systems of WALL•E 1."

Upon hearing that, EVE experienced another cold shock of dread.

All that WALL•E had become on his own, and the consciousness EVE loved, now seemed beyond reach — perhaps trapped as an inert, unreadable mass of data and code for eternity. Her WALL•E was apparently close, frustratingly so . . . but EVE couldn't touch him.

"NO-O-O-O-O!" EVE screamed and sobbed.

EVE could not hold herself back any longer — her emotional subroutines unleashed within her. In almost irrepressible grief, she stormed, even zoomed out of the _Axiom's_ Engineering Lab, to the stunned silence of the other robots.

Her objective to rescue the consciousness she loved seemed utterly beyond hope. The love subroutines of her WALL•E directive propelled EVE now with an uncontrollable force towards a dark, violent despair; one that the directive determined to be consistent with the situation. EVE had to escape. One impulse overtook her. She had to fly — away, anywhere. The direction didn't matter.

Zooming out an open port in the side of the _Axiom_, EVE accelerated into the open sky. She began to vent her frustration by dropping down and skimming first the land, and then over water at ever increasing supersonic speeds. Pulling into a sharp curve, and then a steep, rolling climb; EVE tried to almost literally whip her aggravations and despair off of her as she pierced through scattered layers of clouds like a bullet.

After leveling off from the climb, EVE allowed her grief to propel her into a power dive. Downward thousands of feet in a few seconds, faster and faster. EVE felt almost liberated from her troubles, from her life — almost able to outrun them. Something inside her almost didn't want her to pull up out of the dive now, as her leading surfaces grew ever hotter with the increasing friction of the air.

Freedom. If she maintained her downward course, she could be free in just 2.3 seconds more. Free of grief . . . of care . . . of what WALL•E had become . . .

. . . WALL•E . . .

. . . WALL•E . . .

EVE strenuously pulled up out of the dive just dozens of feet above the ground, leveled off, and reduced speed. She couldn't do it. She just could not terminate herself. She couldn't leave WALL•E as he was — in the world, the limbo, he was in. She could not, she would not quit on him!

"EEEEEAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!" EVE screamed in both anger and sadness. She let it all out. She pulled out her Ion Cannon and blasted away randomly at empty, harmless targets as she flew along — the bigger the resulting explosion, the better.

Then her targeting systems locked on a dead WALL•E unit on the ground and fired before EVE even realized what she was shooting at. EVE watched the dead WALL•E explode in a fiery orb of fragments as she flew over it.

EVE circled around closely overhead as the explosion faded. She looked at the unit's blackened cube blown wide open, at its twisted parts and shredded treads lying around it. The sight of it all chilled EVE, yet it also began to fill her with an unshakeable resolve.

No one . . . not fate, not AUTO, not even the Universe would do that . . . would destroy the WALL•E EVE loved.

EVE rededicated herself towards her chosen WALL•E directive. She found herself loving WALL•E fiercely, even angrily now. She would snatch him back from nothingness. She would fight oblivion for him with all that she had. She would find, and grab, and hold, and love him forever, no matter what it took, or took out of her.

_I will get him back!_ she angrily vowed to herself. _I will get you back, WALL•E,_ EVE beeped with determination in her native _Axiom_ tongue, as she looked out towards the horizon ahead of her.

EVE had exhausted herself. She was ready to set down and go dormant where she was. But her place was beside WALL•E — and if her vows, her directive, meant anything now, she would return to his side to rest.

Executing a graceful, sweeping horizontal arc through a crimson, twilight sky, EVE turned back towards the _Axiom_, and towards WALL•E. Her speed was now moderate, her demeanor calm. EVE had battled her frustrations, her despair, even herself. She had done it all for WALL•E, and won. EVE had won a battle for WALL•E.

She had not won the war for him yet. But the awareness of this one victory for her love brought a gentle but triumphant smile to EVE's eyes as she flew along.

She was ready to continue now.


	8. Chapter 8

EVE was truly a warrior returning from battle. She was emotionally exhausted, even spent, but calm. After the nightmarish disappointments and despair that EVE had experienced and fought through during the day however; for the first time, she now felt that WALL•E, whether he was his past or present self, owed her something . . . even if it was just a hand to hold, to anchor and ground her, through the night. Fighting, even herself, had exposed new raw and primitive energies and sensations in EVE. She needed him, even felt compelled to be near him, tonight. Holding his hand would somehow help her to feel safe. EVE couldn't explain to herself why — something, some subroutine or bit of reference data from somewhere inside, just told her it would.

EVE no longer found herself experiencing frustration or despair however as she returned to him. She found that her WALL•E directive and love subroutines had grown and strengthened within her — and they were now rewarding her with new supplies of calmness and patience, even peace, amid a situation that was driving her into black despair just hours before.

EVE was finding that she loved WALL•E — no matter how, or where, he was. This was a gift she had received, a reward for fighting and winning her battle. EVE gently cried at this realization. However, they weren't tears of sadness, but tears of the deepest joy — a new sensation and awareness that her emotional and love subroutines had developed. EVE had found, even developed, an abiding and sustaining love within herself.

EVE had decided, even wanted, to put these new sensations and tools to use. So once she had decided that she wanted to hold WALL•E's hand through the night . . . after reassuring the other robots that she was now okay, really . . . EVE patiently proceeded to map WALL•E's memory systems and allocations using the Lab's diagnostic resources. She took great, almost reverential care to safeguard and protect the unreadable data and code that she now believed made up the essence of the WALL•E she loved. For a moment, she accessed and tried to read it herself. The data made no sense to her either, but she came to feel like she was looking upon, even into, her beloved while he was locked inside a deep and lasting sleep. It was small rewards like this, small chances to connect with, or at least look upon, the essence she loved — that began to sustain EVE now.

EVE then found herself confronted with a choice. With all the engineering and programming resources at her disposal in the Lab, EVE could develop an entire new set of programs, even a new personality for WALL•E. In almost a flash, she could have him communicate clearly in _Axiom_ code, understand, and even comply with her every wish, effortlessly. She could even program him to become virtually her equal . . .

. . . But she couldn't do that to him — not either to the robot he was now, nor to the memory of him that she loved. She couldn't reduce him to being her drone, her puppet. That was not love. EVE found herself grateful for the guidance that her directive was giving her. With it, she found the strength to choose difficult options, ones that however brought their own rewards of authenticity and devotion.

At the same time though, EVE now found doubts, uncertainties raised by her logic subroutines surfacing in her consciousness. She paused. Despite all the resources of the Engineering Lab, she had so far failed to recover the consciousness that she loved. She now knew where most or all of it likely was; but if massive banks of computers onboard the _Axiom_ couldn't figure out how to access it, how to reach it — what could she, a single Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator probe, do? It dawned on EVE that WALL•E had taken hundreds of years to develop the consciousness that he was. He even developed his own internal system language, which was apparently unintelligible to anyone, or anything, else. What if it would take her hundreds of years to find out how to reach him? What if his new consciousness developed its own personality, its own reasons for existing, its own directives, in that time?

EVE no longer knew how to proceed. Her primary directive wasn't giving the customary, clear guidance the way it always had before — whether it was searching for plant life, or trying to bring the WALL•E she now loved back. EVE needed her directive to address these new insights and questions.

So she decided to amend her directive. She needed it to be more now than what it was in order to guide her to where she wanted to go, and achieve what she wanted to do.

EVE hovered up onto the table, and gently took both of WALL•E's hands in hers. She wanted to make a vow to him, a new, better, and unbreakable directive — one that would address and deal with every doubt, every question, every possibility. She also wanted to share it with him as she made it.

"Commitment," EVE said to WALL•E as she held his hands.

EVE paused, looked away from him, and emitted a groan of frustration. Human English was not her best language. She had been equipped with sufficient linguistic capacity in English to understand any command in it she might be given, but not enough to express herself fully in it. Her subroutines and processing became bogged down as she fought to find the right English words.

So EVE turned to the one language, of the several she was programmed to know, that she was a master in — _Axiom_ code. While it was developed merely for purposes of programming, command, and the exchange of data; EVE knew she could turn the dry, unemotional beeps and tones of _Axiom_ code into a warm, honest promise, filled with the love she was experiencing and wanted to express . . .

_I swear to respect you,_ she began beeping to WALL•E, _both the consciousness you were, and the being you are now. I will help you learn and grow and remember, but never force you to._ _While I will always hope and work to bring back the part of you who taught me to love; I promise to find joy in, honor, and love whatever consciousness you have or can attain, while never forgetting who you have been. I will remain always beside you, and never give up on you or what we come to share. I will forever believe in you, and love you, because you have already done so for me._

Even though he couldn't understand what she was saying or meaning as she spoke to him in _Axiom_ code, the vacant being that WALL•E now was looked at her with total attention. EVE detected this vacant but new focus in him. She hoped it might become something more — but that, her commitment reminded her, was now his choice. EVE hoped she could help him to understand the gift she was giving him though, no matter how long it would now take.

EVE paused. She now felt guided again. Her amended, unbreakable directive — her commitment — was now in place. She knew now what she would begin to do.

EVE moved close to WALL•E. He did not move back. She leaned her head against his optics and spark-kissed him. For some reason, this triggered a response — WALL•E's Solar Charge Display fluctuated, and he emitted a small audible warble. Surprised and warmed, EVE looked into WALL•E through his optics, just as he was, and gave him a deep embrace. Armed with greater intelligence and awareness now thanks to the Type 17 Processor, WALL•E began accepting EVE's behavior towards him, interpreting it as a directive. On his own, he began to echo her moves, and he embraced her back.

EVE began to experience quiet tears of joy inside as WALL•E held her, on his own, for the first time since everything happened.

She didn't want to let go . . . of either him, or this special moment between them. But EVE's systems beckoned her to dormancy. They needed the resources of her consciousness to process and integrate the mass of events and sensations she had been experiencing through the day — not to mention her new commitment, and the myriad implementing subroutines it would now require.

EVE reveled for one more moment in WALL•E's embrace however, letting her emotional subroutines now bathe her in the warmest, most satisfying sensations love could provide — instead of the waves of pain and anguish they had deluged her with just hours ago. With her inexhaustible power supply, EVE never needed recharging of the electricity that drove her systems. But having opened herself to the powerful concept of love, EVE now found that she did need this kind of emotional recharging to reenergize her conscience, and sense of purpose. She had in fact for some time now. EVE began to comprehend that every time recently that she had received or given a hug — with the other robots, or even with Typing-bot — EVE had experienced renewal, a resurgence of purpose. EVE had felt recharged.

_Regularly recharge with hugs and other forms of affection,_ EVE recorded to herself, adding a sub-note to her new commitment. Her eye forms broke into a smile — she would enjoy this new form of emotional energy transfer!

And she would start tonight!

Reluctantly leaving their embrace, EVE faced him, extended a hand, and said, "WALL•E . . . help me?"

WALL•E's optics whirred as they refocused on EVE as his arms returned to their default position at his side. He looked down at her extended hand, and then back on her eye forms again as his systems now worked to compute the meaning of her request.

"WALL•E, help me?" EVE patiently repeated.

She wouldn't try explaining her newfound idea of emotional recharging now. She would no longer even give commands to him — her new commitment, and respect for him, wouldn't allow her to do so anymore. Her subroutines of love helped her actually feel good about making this part of her commitment, confirming that it was consistent with the definitions of what love was.

EVE decided to just start working with what she was aware that WALL•E had available to him — basic English instructions . . . which were now requests to her . . . and demonstrating what she was asking of him. She would reach out and try and connect with him where he was. With the Type 17 Processor her analyses reminded her, he could now learn and retain more data and experience than he had been able to before without it.

"WALL•E . . . hand?" she gently clarified as she continued to hold hers out for his, hoping he would make the connection on his own. EVE began to experience disappointment that WALL•E evidently wasn't remembering how they had held hands even in the recent days since he had lost who he was. Her eye forms began to take on arcs of sadness.

Amid the computational puzzlement that WALL•E was experiencing, what he was seeing before him began to reference with other things, things he had source information on._ Discontent . . . un-happiness . . . noncompliance . . . not acceptable . . . _he was hearing in his consciousness — these references began to approximate what his optics were imaging to him, at the required greater than 50% match level.

_Access command structure . . . default resolution . . . imitate demonstrated behavior . . ._ his systems recommended to his consciousness in sequence. WALL•E began to extend his right hand towards EVE as he had seen her do.

His optics and processors began to take in EVE's new response to his action. _Happy eyes . . . word _"Yes"_ detected . . . positive confirmation . . . record associated dialog and actions for future reference and access . . ._ his processors, the Type 17 chief among them, noted within him.

"Thank you, WALL•E," EVE said as she gladly took his extended hand. _Thank you for making a connection with me,_ she thought, and endeavored to show to him.

Keeping his hand in hers, EVE hovered over to WALL•E's side. She looked at him.

"Dormant?" she invited, asking him to rest with her.

WALL•E communicated his understanding of her request by facing his optics forward, and cubing up . . . while leaving his hand extended in hers. It was a deviation from his standard dormancy mode — but his systems allowed it, given the positive confirmation he was continuing to detect from the being beside him that he was beginning to regard as his guide.

"Thank you, WALL•E," EVE said again to him in genuine gratitude for accepting her invitation. It seemed to provide good positive reinforcement to him, and saying those words produced good sensations for her as well. EVE was ready now to enter dormancy herself, reveling in the small but wonderful accomplishment and connection she and WALL•E had achieved over the evening — a second victory of the day, EVE began to recognize with a positive sensation, for her . . . and him!

EVE's systems began their processing work as she allowed her consciousness to slip into dormancy. Seemingly random thoughts and insights provided positive sensations of comfort to her as autonomous functions overtook her . . . _Show . . . WALL•E . . . Bring him back . . . Hope . . . Love . . ._

WALL•E had much new data to process himself in dormancy. The new Type 17 Processor was still orienting itself to the full extent of his systems. His awareness was growing — for the first time as far as he was conscious of.

. . . But his systems detected something. There was this mass of data within him, inaccessible . . . seemingly walled off . . .


	9. Chapter 9

EVE awoke beside WALL•E — still holding his hand, just as the consciousness she loved in him would have wanted. For a moment, she took that treasured hand of his in both of hers, and just looked at him.

EVE wondered what his new consciousness might be thinking, and recalled with fondness some of her experiences with his old consciousness. As her inquiries concerning the new WALL•E blended with memory data of the old inside her consciousness, EVE began to experience sensations of gratitude, and love. For the first time since her quest to recover the consciousness of WALL•E that she loved began, EVE was now grateful to have him with her, however he was . . . and to have a vague, indefinable, encouraging sensation that she still had alternatives, that there were still possibilities, to bring him back.

"Yes," EVE said to herself, serenely fulfilled with what she was experiencing, as she simply continued to hold WALL•E's hand, and think of him in all his facets.

EVE was shaken out of her quiet reverie by the return of the other robots to the Engineering Lab.

WALL•E was awakened by their return as well. His optics emerged from his cube and began to survey these other beings approaching him. He found a curious new interest in what, and who, was around him. His newly-developing memory systems reminded him that he had seen them before. He looked at each of the other robots with interest.

A Priority Conclusion Alert flashed on EVE's visor, alerting that her systems had something to inform her of. EVE accessed the link to the report, and it expanded into her consciousness.

_The Scanning Table's memory analysis, _it began,_ noted that Memory Systems of WALL•E 1 were not complete. Results suggest existence of missing Memory System components or subroutines that facilitated previous personality of WALL•E 1. Absence of some Memory subroutines at minimum, and thus their existence, is confirmed by table's analysis. Recommend search for Memory components and/or subroutines to further progress toward objective of recovering previous personality of WALL•E 1. End report._

EVE, for her part, began to reluctantly recognize that the Engineering Lab somehow no longer held the answers, the solution, she had originally hoped it would. Her analytic and logic subroutines had developed that inescapable conclusion during her dormancy overnight.

But where could those missing components or subroutines be? EVE didn't know. And just as her original search for plant life had taken centuries to achieve, EVE now began to experience sensations of at least concern that her search for these key potential elements to the consciousness she loved could take just as long.

EVE's memories of her WALL•E began to play again in her consciousness — why, she did not know. She saw him holding up the plant to her the first time. She recalled she had never expected him to provide the solution to her long search for plant life, her original directive . . . but he did. Dwelling on that unexpected realization, EVE now detected that her new belief subroutines were interfacing with her analytic subroutines to send her an encouraging message. They even connected the dots for her . . .

_Perhaps an unexpected solution, answer, or option might present itself. Remain observant for it,_ they warmly reassured her in her through an idea that emerged into her consciousness. _Allow space, time, and peace for it,_ they added, their counsel supported with references from how great thinkers and seekers from Earth's past had sometimes found what they had been in search of.

EVE sensed marvel at how her commitment — to WALL•E, and to love him no matter what — was now influencing her systems. Her subroutines, and even their communications to her, were now taking on an unaccustomed degree of positive encouragement, even warmth, amid seemingly discouraging circumstances. Logic was now being mixed with a degree of ethereal hope and belief to present an unexpected way forward. As she allowed all this into her consciousness, EVE found her commitment encouraging and sustaining her directly now, with new positive sensations that she couldn't even name.

It all was working well for her — very well. EVE had never experienced such satisfaction, such harmony with her directives, assigned or chosen, before. EVE began to appreciate the power of the choice she had made — the vow she had chosen to guide, even govern, her actions and outlook.

Still, EVE came to the conclusion that she and her supportive friends had probably accomplished all they could in the Lab for now. It was time for a break . . . EVE didn't know for how long — until something . . . a possibility, a clue, a component or subroutine . . . showed itself.

EVE was prepared to accept what she had for now with WALL•E, and be content with it. The commitment she had freely chosen would allow no less. She had experienced despair, grief, and desperation. While they had helped her in some measure to get to where she now was — EVE realized that such negative sensations would no longer serve her in her quest to bring WALL•E back. Positive belief, intention . . . the term 'faith' also seemed to fit, illogical as that initially seemed to EVE . . . and time, would become the underlying elements guiding, perhaps propelling, her onward from here.

She realized it was time to allow her, and WALL•E's, friends to go on with other activities. It was also time to let others whose lives WALL•E had touched, know what had transpired as well.

EVE turned to the other robots from the table, while still holding WALL•E's hand. Pausing to organize her realizations and sensations into the right terms of _Axiom_ code, she began to talk with them. Through beeps and tones, she told them as warmly as that language would allow that she deeply appreciated everything they had done for her and WALL•E in recent days. EVE paused again as sensations of tearful gratitude welled up within her systems. She turned to WALL•E, and gently lifted him down to the Lab's deck, so they both could be among their friends.

Holding WALL•E's hand once again, EVE extended her free right fin towards their robot friends, inviting them in for a warm hug. WALL•E looked quizzically at EVE as the other robots surrounded them closely, and then extended his free arm out towards them as well, as he had seen her do. The robots all merged close to each other, using their recently discovered universal language of embrace to convey warm, positive concepts and sensations, like gratitude, that mere _Axiom_ code could not begin to. WALL•E took it all in, concluding these actions would have logical reasons or purposes that would become apparent to him at some point.

After all that could be said through embrace was; the robots, except for EVE and WALL•E, separated slightly.

"Thank you," EVE concluded to them. "Help others," she commended to them in English, adding, _Reconvene within five days at WALL•E's truck,_ in _Axiom_ code. EVE now didn't want to lose touch with their friends, but didn't quite know how to say it . . . in either English or _Axiom_.

The other robots then departed, going their separate ways, seemingly looking to fulfill their various directives. The last to leave, M-O, turned at the Lab door and enthusiastically waived his brush. And with a few friendly beeps, he too, departed.

The Lab doors closed. EVE and WALL•E were now alone in the Lab — save for their two assigned Steward-bots, the dead WALL•E unit still on the large scanning table, and the three other dead units EVE had arranged to be brought in. Wanting to wrap up loose ends, but not knowing what to do with them, EVE quickly scanned the three units that had not been examined yet, for a Type 17 Processor, using her own scanner.

_Beep — Beep — Beep — Neee,_ she scanned.

_Beep — Beep — Beep — Neee._

_Beep — Beep — Beep — Neee._

None of the dead units had one. They were never self-aware, EVE realized. Each day was their first — the only day they had ever known, as she had recently experienced with WALL•E herself.

EVE felt sad for them. She could repair them, even upgrade them with Type 17 Processors, but for what? Operation Clean-up had been long abandoned as an ill-conceived failure, and EVE had seen how some of the towers of garbage the WALL•E units had constructed had collapsed, posing a danger to everyone, robot and human alike. EVE already felt fully occupied caring for her one WALL•E. Four more, all at the same beginning level of awareness, EVE felt would overwhelm her. Her one WALL•E was enough for now, especially if she was to continue her quest to bring the essence she loved back from where he was.

EVE felt sensations of conflict, of mixed feelings. Her chosen respect for WALL•E and who he was, now extended to feelings of respect for these other WALL•E units as well. She might need parts from them to sustain her WALL•E eventually, but what should she do with these others, she thought to herself.

Tapping into subroutines of love and respect, EVE decided that it was most appropriate to return these units to where they had come from, to what they had last known in their simple lives. So, inviting her WALL•E on to a hover transport, EVE then placed a single dead WALL•E unit behind him on the transport, and called M-O back via the _Axiom's_ comm system to drive them. With EVE hovering alongside, together they took each unit in turn back outside beyond the _Axiom_ to where she had found them. Once they arrived back where she had found them, EVE took each dead WALL•E off the transport and laid it carefully back in its place, gently arranging each one into cube form to better protect its components in case they might be needed. As she did this, part of EVE cried. With each unit she brought out, set down, and positioned in silence — she came to feel almost as if she were in some way burying, saying goodbye, to her WALL•E. Originally, in picking up these units, EVE had had so much hope and clear determination. Now, she did not know what would be next for her and the WALL•E she loved.

After setting the fourth unit down into its resting place, EVE turned to her WALL•E and broke down, crying gently. She moved close to him and embraced him. He returned her embrace. While EVE recognized that it might be a long time before WALL•E appreciated the meaning behind an embrace — EVE drew strength, an emotional recharge, from the fact that he was embracing her nonetheless. Things were still not easy for her at times, nor clear to him yet.

That first difficult task done, EVE turned to completing her other objectives for the day — informing those who cared about WALL•E of what he had become, and re-introducing them to him. Renewed from her embrace with WALL•E, EVE turned to M-O, and asked him through _Axiom_ beeps to take them back to the ship, and first to Typing-bot in the Bridge Lobby off the Lido Deck.

When the lobby door opened, Typing-bot looked up, and began waiving at EVE and WALL•E as they entered on the transport. Seeing EVE look up at him sadly though, confirmed to Typing-bot what he already knew — all was not as it should be, nor as they had hoped.

Gently lifting WALL•E off the transport, EVE guided him to come with her to meet Typing-bot again, but also for the first time. EVE paused, and then began beeping to Typing-bot in _Axiom_, looking down with some dejection as she held WALL•E's hand.

EVE found herself speaking _Axiom_ code to Typing-bot very slowly, almost as slowly as he communicated. The sadness and difficulty of explaining what had transpired — combined with memories of her unfortunately scolding a happy WALL•E while he was waiving at Typing-bot behind her back when they both were being taken to the Repair Ward by GO-4 — weighed heavily on EVE, slowing down her processing.

_This is WALL•E, _she began,_ but he is not himself . . . The consciousness you and I enjoyed is still trapped within him, and part of it may be lost . . . We don't know where . . . He is better than he was though . . . And I still have hope. _EVE looked at WALL•E as she concluded,_ I promised WALL•E that._

Having been exposed to every piece of writing on the ship, and every work of literature in the _Axiom's_ library databanks, Typing-bot was never so moved by expressions as simple and brief as the ones EVE shared with him. After looking down in pause for a moment, Typing-bot looked back at EVE and WALL•E, and extended his fingers. For a robot who lived to deal with written expression, words were failing to capture the deep sensations Typing-bot was experiencing at the moment. Through her sad eye forms, EVE recognized his gesture though, and gently ushered WALL•E in for a shared embrace with Typing-bot.

_You have helped us,_ EVE beeped to Typing-bot with a mixture of sadness and gratitude, as she and WALL•E moved back afterwards. _Thank you._

Typing-bot pecked slowly at his keyboard, and then looked at his nearby holoscreen, as a message appeared . . .

_I have not done enough though, otherwise he would be himself again.  
What more can I do?_

Sensations of gratitude and awe-filled respect washed through EVE at the depth of Typing-bot's generosity and support of her quest.

Knowing that communicating all that had happened to WALL•E, and all that he now was, to the Captain and other humans in English was going to be even more of a challenge than informing Typing-bot in _Axiom_ had been; EVE proceeded to ask Typing-bot if he could prepare a communication about WALL•E and his condition, and send it ahead of her to the Captain, as well as to Mary and John, before she met with them all; and make it available to anyone else who might care to know.

_Your story has already been largely known_, Typing-bot noted in his glacial beeps, reminding EVE that almost everyone had witnessed WALL•E's original accident in the _Axiom's _Holo-Detector._ I will help, but your task will be easier than you imagine,_ he assured her, knowing what EVE was endeavoring to do in telling others about how WALL•E was.

_Thank you,_ EVE responded to Typing-bot in _Axiom_, her sadness subsiding somewhat, as she began to realize again how much others were supporting her in her quest to bring WALL•E back.

As she and WALL•E turned to leave, Typing-bot pecked again at his keyboard, and then hummed, gesturing at his screen . . .

_WALL•E will come back.  
Let me know what more I can do._

Upon seeing Typing-bot's message on the holoscreen, EVE turned to WALL•E. "Please wait," she asked him, before practically zooming back to Typing-bot to give him another embrace of deep thanks. Typing-bot's belief, his certainty about WALL•E seemed greater than her own . . . and robots don't make illogical or false statements as clear as this, EVE marveled to herself. She looked again in joy at Typing-bot's message, determining to remember it whenever her own resolve wavered.

As EVE and WALL•E left, she was surprised to see several Messenger-bots already zooming past them in and out of Typing-bot's lobby. He seemed slow, she thought, but maybe there's more to him than she realized.

Dismissing both their assigned Steward-bots and the hover transport, EVE decided just to move at a gentle pace with WALL•E towards an exit in the side of the ship near the Lido Deck. EVE was in no particular hurry now, and began to appreciate a simple, quiet stroll just holding hands with WALL•E. They moved slowly down a ramp, past the large, circular pool. EVE talked gently with WALL•E — sometimes in _Axiom_, sometimes using English words. She pointed out a few things of interest, and started to tell him the names of some of the things he looked at. EVE started to discover and enjoy new sensations of contentment and peace, just being with WALL•E.

Before EVE and WALL•E reached the access port to the outside though, they began to attract a small following of quiet robots and humans, which kept growing as they went. EVE looked at the people and bots gathering around her and WALL•E. Invariably, they met her gaze with sad, grateful, or respectful looks in their eyes or eye forms. Some of the people began saying things to her and WALL•E as the two passed them.

"Thank you, WALL•E."

"We believe in you two."

"You can do it EVE."

VN-GO and a few of his paint-bot friends even hastily painted a few words on the corridor walls in various colors as WALL•E and EVE passed by . . . words like _GO EVE!_ and _COME BACK WALL•E!_

When the two robots reached the access doorway though, EVE's eye forms opened wide in amazement. Steward-bots were now lined up on either side of them in an honor guard formation, with their lights flashing, and an image of EVE and WALL•E together on each of their screens . . . but not as 'rogue robots' this time however.

As EVE and WALL•E exited the _Axiom_, applause and cheering erupted. Captain McCrea, fresh from more forays in planting, rose at the top of the stairs to greet them. WALL•E and EVE's robot friends were also there, as were Mary and John with their several newly adopted children. M-O gave a little wink and a beep at EVE, hinting that they all had been up to something. To her amazement, EVE even spotted Hal, WALL•E's pet cockroach, happily bouncing up and down on top of none other than M-O! Evidently M-O had gotten over his 'foreign contaminant' issues, EVE realized to her bemusement.

Amid the cheering and applause, Captain McCrea gestured for EVE and WALL•E to come beside him at the top of the stairs. He turned with them to face the crowd of people and robots gathered on the ground below, as a Megaphone-bot moved to hover in front of the Captain.

"Attention everybody," the Captain began, as he gestured for silence from the crowd. "By now, most all of you have heard the latest news that has been spread with the help of my Typing-bot and the Messenger-bots. That we are even here on Earth is due to the selfless work, and sacrifice, of the two robots beside me. They risked — and one lost — almost everything they were to get us here."

"EVE, WALL•E," he said, turning to them. "We can never thank you enough, never fully repay you, for bringing all of us home . . . but if I have anything to do with it, we're all going to try!" A loud, enthusiastic cheer erupted at the Captain's pledge.

Calming down the crowd and turning to look at WALL•E, the Captain continued, "WALL•E, what has happened to you simply should not have occurred — even I did everything I could to help save you back then. While I understand that you're no longer aware of what you did for us; we will remember, and treasure, both what you did . . . and who you were . . . for you, for the time being, until you can remember for yourself."

McCrea stifled a tear, "You gave us back our home . . . and in your own unique way, even reminded us of what is important in life." Recovering himself, he continued, "We look forward to welcoming your true self back . . . and we will not rest until you return to us."

Even louder cheering erupted.

Then, laying a hand on him, the Captain noted publicly, "I can imagine that most of this just confuses you right now. But this is a community, WALL•E, and this is what a good community does for people . . . for beings . . . it cares about, who need its help and support. I and everyone here, are ready to help you learn and understand just how much we care about you." Another round of cheering and applause rang out.

EVE was just moved beyond words, beyond tears. She moved in close beside WALL•E, put her fin across the top of his cube, leaned her head against his optics, and gave him a squeeze. She gently shook her head in disbelieving joy, as she could not believe this . . . this miracle . . . was happening for them. WALL•E just looked around with open curiosity, trying to take it all in.

"EVE," the Captain resumed as EVE looked up at him, "Your friends . . . and there are more of them than you may realize . . . have informed me on at least some of what you have undertaken for WALL•E — both to care for him, and to help bring his true self back. I can only admire your dedication . . . your commitment . . . to him."

The loudest, most sustained applause yet broke out at these words. Even Captain McCrea joined in applauding EVE himself as he turned to face her. The steady applause and cheering continued for what seemed like minutes. EVE was stunned at hearing those words. Her secret was apparently out. Her story, her quest, her vow, was evidently there for all to appreciate, and to support.

Although unable to be present in person, Typing-bot was watching all this on his holoscreen. He let out a hum of satisfaction that the news stories and updates he had been writing and disseminating about EVE and WALL•E had had the desired effect across the _Axiom_ community. After all, creating them had been his main preoccupation for the past several days, ever since EVE first came to him for help. Given everything he had ever read, and with all the information that came to him from throughout the ship . . . including from the Engineering Lab — Typing-bot knew the makings of a good and compelling story when he saw it . . . and knew it would help bring WALL•E back, too. It just would.

Up at the top of the stairs outside, EVE could only slowly bow her head to the crowd amid their sustained cheering as she tearfully closed her eye forms in trying to express her immense, almost overwhelming, sensations of gratitude for their support.

When the crowd finally quieted down, Captain McCrea looked at EVE, and continued, "EVE, given that WALL•E is not himself yet, and having personally seen how dedicated you can be in any task you undertake; I can only imagine how hard you have already worked, even fought, to bring WALL•E back. And, given what I've been informed of, I can also only imagine how disappointed you may be, or may have been, that you have not achieved that, yet. I want to tell you right now though, that we all are here to show our continuing support for you, and your quest to bring WALL•E back. You are not alone in doing what you are." Yet another round of applause and cheering broke out.

The Captain looked down and paused, before looking back at EVE again and continuing, "I'm going to ask something of you now that I realize may be incredibly hard for you — or perhaps incredibly easy and clear . . . I don't know. EVE, on behalf of all of us here, I want to simply ask you not to give up . . . but to persevere in bringing WALL•E back to us. What you both have brought to us, gave us, and risked for us, are that important to — and that appreciated by — this community. Please consider this your primary mission and objective, until it is achieved. That is how much faith I have in you, and that you will find a way to do this . . . just as certainly as you found, and helped to save against great odds, the plant that brought us all home. Please call on any of us for help, even me, at any time. You can have whatever other robots or resources that you may need. I can only conclude by wishing you good luck, EVE. Bring WALL•E back to us soon!"

The crowd gave a final ovation of cheers and applause.

EVE found herself so overwhelmed with awe and gratitude that she was emotionally spent. She looked up at the Captain though and gave him a salute, acknowledging his commission to her.

Then to his surprise, she hovered up and gave him a grateful embrace. The crowd erupted in even louder approval and admiration, as he uncertainly embraced her back. It was a new and curious sensation for the Captain . . . he had never experienced an embrace before!

EVE moved back down beside WALL•E. As she took WALL•E's hand once again in preparation to lead him home through the crowd, with an escort of Steward-bots and a hover transport now at the bottom of the stairs ready to convey them; Captain McCrea looked at EVE and WALL•E and said, "I am proud of you both — especially you, EVE."

He then added with a smile, "Now go get him, EVE . . . go bring WALL•E back!"

* * *

_If everyone from EVE to the Captain aren't willing to accept anything less than WALL•E's return, how can you or I?_

_Sometimes, it's important that individuals be recognized, even celebrated, __while__ they're trying to do or achieve something — not just after they've accomplished it. Support can be far more powerful, and helpful, when it's given during the depths of striving, even hopelessness; rather than handed out as recognition or awards after the challenge or pursuit is over. Success no longer needs a helping hand, struggle could._

_So, in the spirit of supporting quests like EVE's, maybe go out and recognize and admire, even celebrate, some striving; rather than just success. Perhaps honor and hearten someone facing an obstacle, pursuing a dream, even desiring to find or maintain love and hope. Like EVE, individuals facing challenges may not always think to ask for support — or think what they're facing, or they, matter. But you may have no idea how treasured and truly helpful such encouragement could be, especially when it's needed most._

_The robot adventure continues . . ._

_GO EVE!! COME BACK WALL•E!!_

— _Norwesterner_


	10. Chapter 10

Despite having an escort of Stewart-bots to clear the way, EVE and WALL•E were surrounded by people and robots as they made their way home from the _Axiom_ on their hover transport. Everyone just seemed to follow them as they went. EVE at first continued to be grateful and overwhelmed by all the support and encouragement. However, amid the crowd she was almost shouting directions in _Axiom_ to the escorting Stewart-bots to guide them towards the truck WALL•E and she shared. EVE was just thankful that M-O offered to drive the hover transport once she and WALL•E had boarded it — he at least knew the way.

Still, amid all the busyness, EVE wasn't going to lose touch with WALL•E. She held him from behind as they went along on the hover transport, and continued to try to point out things that might be of interest to him — although it wasn't always easy for her to get his attention with all that was going on! The most precious moments to EVE though were just holding WALL•E now. Actually, she had never spent much time at his back before, and at times began noticing new details about the back of his optics and elsewhere that had previously escaped her attention.

EVE just began to relax and smile though, as she held WALL•E even tighter and closer — enjoying the journey with him, regardless of whatever else was going on.

They finally arrived at their truck, but things didn't end there. As the celebration and attention around her and WALL•E kept on going for the rest of the day, EVE became just overwhelmed. Everyone else, robot and human alike, continued to be very excited — but EVE was ready for some quiet and rest . . . with WALL•E. She was wanting some 'emotional recharging' with him, and some more little rewarding moments for the battles she had recently fought for both of them. After all, part of her commitment to WALL•E was enjoying 'now' with him, not just maintaining hope for someday in the future.

_This is good,_ EVE began to muse to herself with satisfaction, as she inwardly marveled at some of the increasingly wonderful, and enjoyable, pledges she had somehow managed to include in her commitment to WALL•E. She was also just glad that as a robot, she could enjoy some quiet thoughts to herself, while she continued to remain beside WALL•E on the ramp of their truck, and waive and politely acknowledge the crowd's continuing attention and enthusiastic support. EVE wondered if humans could multi-task and process like this.

Evening twilight finally began to diminish the crowd. That, and a brief sand storm, served to encourage the rest to return to the _Axiom_. EVE found herself strangely grateful for the storm, even though it demonstrated that the hole she had once blasted in the truck's roof would need to be repaired somehow! Upon closing the truck's door at the storm's onset, despite the wind and sand blowing in through the hole in the roof for a moment — EVE experienced a surprising surge of relief, fatigue, and yet love for WALL•E, and joy that she was home . . . with him . . . alone.

Once the storm passed and all became quiet, EVE turned some lights on, and went around the truck picking a few things up that had been blown over or out of place. She looked back at WALL•E, and could see him surveying the interior of the truck with interest.

With a mixture of knowing, yet sadness, EVE just beeped at WALL•E in _Axiom_, _You can't remember being here, can you._

With a loving look in her eye forms, she hovered over beside WALL•E and put a fin around him, as she gestured around them with the other fin.

"WALL•E . . . home," she said. _This is our home_, she amplified in _Axiom_, hoping that he might start to become bilingual and come to recognize both languages. WALL•E looked at her, and around their home, in curiosity.

"You . . . here . . . long time . . ." _You have lived here for centuries,_ she continued in both languages.

He motored over to the shelves on one side. EVE moved over to the shelf controls and began rotating them so that he could see all that was on them. But WALL•E shrieked and jumped back in alarm at the shelves moving, instinctively withdrawing into his cube, shaking. EVE immediately stopped the shelves and rushed over, putting her fins around WALL•E to reassure him.

"Shhhhh . . . okay . . . okay," she said to him soothingly, as his optics and arms slowly started to re-emerge.

WALL•E's nervous chattering and warbling began to subside. He looked up at her, silently.

As she held him and looked back at him, EVE expressed to him in _Axiom_, _You don't know my identification, do you . . . _"My name," she added in English. She realized that she hadn't introduced herself to this latest incarnation of him.

EVE paused as WALL•E continued to look at her. Those optics of his . . . they were starting to show signs of curiosity, even of personality starting to emerge, EVE began to appreciate inwardly. EVE let herself look deeply into them for the first time in a while. His gaze was no longer quite the empty stare it had been. Somehow, it no longer frightened or chilled her.

EVE could have introduced herself properly to him, but . . .

". . . Eee-vaah," she ended up saying to him, pointing at herself with warm, smiling eyes.

She wanted him to know her again using the name he himself had once called her by. It was one way to keep his memory alive, or revive or re-create it, she marveled to herself. EVE began to experience a wonderful mixture of pride and belonging again in starting to use the name that he had given her. By using, even embracing that name, she felt she was his, truly his, once more.

"Eee-vaah . . . Eee-vaah," she slowly repeated, still pointing to herself with one of her fins, while keeping the other around him.

"Eee-vaah," WALL•E finally repeated out loud, pointing towards her himself.

EVE giggled with delight and joy at hearing him say her name as only he could, for the first time since her odyssey to bring him back had begun. It was a tremendous, warming, yet simple gift to her.

"Thank you, WALL•E," she said with warmth and gratitude as she moved closer and embraced him.

"Eee-vaah," he repeated innocently.

EVE giggled again with joy in her eye forms as she moved back slightly in their embrace and looked at him.

"You . . ." EVE said, as she irresistibly moved closer, gently touching her visor against his optics, and giving him a spark-kiss.

WALL•E involuntarily warbled in response as his Solar Charge Display beeped. This caused EVE to giggle again as she lifted him off the truck's floor and slowly spun around with him in the air.

"You . . . thank you . . ." she warmly repeated as she held him even tighter.

"Whoa!" WALL•E noted with a degree of concern as he looked down and noticed he was off the floor. His optics swiveled, anxiously looking back and forth between the floor below and EVE.

"Shhhh . . . okay," EVE reassured him, as she gently floated both of them, still slowly spinning, back down to the floor.

_Someday you will fly with me, and come to enjoy it,_ she said to him in _Axiom_. EVE found herself already looking forward to even the idea of such a day, with positive anticipation.

"Eee-vaah," WALL•E said more brightly, now that he was back on the floor.

"WALL•E," EVE responded once again, with incredible sensations of warmth and joy once again washing through her.

"Eee-vaah . . . Eee-vaah . . ." WALL•E began repeating, encouraged by her positive responses.

"Shhhh . . ." she gently said to him, holding up a finger in front of her. _Don't overdo it,_ she warmly cautioned him in _Axiom_.

"Huh?" he asked quizzically.

EVE recognized that she had to be careful, and consistent in using English and _Axiom_ together . . . she couldn't just speak English expressions and unrelated _Axiom_ thoughts at the same time. That would only confuse WALL•E in learning _Axiom_, she realized.

She looked down and gently shook her head in frustration as she continued to face him. Then she looked at him again with a tinge of sadness in her eye forms. EVE found herself wanting to communicate, to share, so much with WALL•E . . . but she didn't know how.

_Devise linguistic teaching and communication options and scenarios with WALL•E 1_, she instructed her internal analytic systems. EVE began to see a variety of scenarios in text and images presented on her visor — but she dismissed one after another, seeing nothing that would satisfy her desire to share all that was in her consciousness with him this evening. One last option presented itself . . . _Just show him, express yourself,_ it simply advised her.

EVE once again moved close to WALL•E, embracing him tightly as she looked with sadness past him towards the floor. She detected his arms extending and encircling her again.

"Eee-vaah," he calmly said.

_Maybe you're learning after all,_ she thought warmly to herself for a moment.

Perceiving WALL•E's actions, EVE began to wonder to herself, _Could love be just a series of programmed responses that are triggered in reaction to certain stimuli?_

_Could I just teach WALL•E to love me?_ she asked herself. _How had he once taught me about love, and how to love him?_

EVE re-accessed all her memories of WALL•E as she considered these questions. It had all just seemed to happen to her, to both of them. One minute she saw just this odd little robot; and only days later she was casting aside her long sought-after plant, and willingly, even joyfully, making him her directive. All he had done, she realized, was to consistently, unswervingly, appreciate and care for her.

_When I finally was able to see all that he had done for me . . ._ she reflected to herself, _. . . I just wanted to do the same for him, in gratitude . . . and hardly a word needed to be spoken . . . in __**any**__ language!_

_. . . That's it! Just show him . . . and maybe tell, a little!_ EVE marveled. She moved back slightly to look at WALL•E, and took one of his optics in her open hand.

"WALL•E . . ." she said warmly to him as she smiled with her eye forms, ". . . good."

WALL•E took one of his own hands, and laid it gently on EVE's head beside her visor.

"Eee-vaah . . . goooood," he replied in the same gentle way.

EVE was touched deeply, and began gently crying tears of loving gratitude.

"Thank you, WALL•E," she whispered, heartfelt amid her grateful tears.

"Thaaank yooou . . . Eee-vaah," he repeated.

EVE couldn't resist moving closer and giving him another spark-kiss on his optics . . . with the now predictable response from WALL•E!

EVE got a warm, slightly mischievous look in her eye forms. _One more long one_, she thought.

So she moved in and — *_Zzzzzzaaaaaaaaaappp!*_ — she gave him a nice, long-lasting spark-kiss!

"Wow-wow-woah-woah-woah-ah-ah-ah!" WALL•E gently exclaimed in surprise and response.

EVE gently and joyfully laughed, as she shook her head at his wonderfully silly responses, while still touching WALL•E's optic with her visor. She nuzzled him, and it was wonderful. Maybe there was more of the consciousness she loved present, or emerging within him now, than she had feared initially.

EVE found herself very relaxed now with WALL•E. Her mind was still. She was totally at peace. She was even joyfully ready to fade off to dormancy with him after such an eventful day.

"Sleep?" she whispered, almost seductively — the speaker in her visor being largely muffled against his optic.

"Sleeeeep," WALL•E agreed, seeming to be almost as content, and lulled, as EVE felt she was.

WALL•E's optics and treads cubed up within him, but his arms remained extended around EVE. EVE likewise allowed her head to retract to her own body, but left herself leaning downwards towards WALL•E with her arms extended around him as well.

_This can work,_ EVE joyously thought to herself as she faded towards dormancy — resting, even reveling, within his extended arms. _I will still search for a way to bring you back fully, but it can all work!_

_This is good . . . _she smiled to herself as her eye forms closed._ WALL•E, you are good . . ._


	11. Chapter 11

"**Quest** . . . A long and sometimes difficult search for something of importance . . ."

"**Commitment** . . . A promise, pledge, or vow undertaken freely by choice towards a person, relationship, or purpose . . ."

"**Hope** . . . A wish, aspiration, or expectation for something desired to happen . . ."

"**Love** . . . Feelings or sensations of affection, compassion, loyalty, or pleasurable interest, which can be experienced singularly or in combination, towards an individual or object one cherishes . . ."

EVE shook her head. _English is so much harder to master than Axiom . . . so imprecise and variable,_ she thought to herself.

Still, she beeped one more concept in _Axiom_ that came to mind to learn its English equivalent and definition.

"**Celebrity** . . . A person who has become famous through actions or performances, who attracts significant attention from the public . . ."

_End queries,_ she beeped with fatigue at the new computer console before her inside the truck she shared with WALL•E. Its holoscreen obediently vanished and the keyboard panel went dark. The console was a gift from the Captain to help her in her mission to bring WALL•E back that he had assigned her now.

"The Tech-bots tell me this will provide a direct, wireless link to all the _Axiom's_ computer resources . . ." she recalled the Captain proudly saying when he unveiled it at the door to WALL•E and EVE's truck several days ago.

It was one of many gifts actually that she and WALL•E had found themselves being showered with since the special gathering they had been honored at — which in a way, hadn't ended. Originally intending to follow the guidance of her commitment to just allow a time of peace for unexpected options to surface, EVE had yet to really find that peace.

EVE sighed as she turned and hovered over to the truck's doorway. She stopped at the top of the ramp, as she looked across at WALL•E outside. There he was out in the sunshine, surrounded by John, Mary, their children, as well as M-O, V-QM, BRL-A the Umbrella-bot, and several other humans and robots . . . learning to play with a beach ball. Hal was even happily bouncing around, doing his best not to get hit by the ball, or stepped on!

" . . . WALL•E, you just catch the ball like this," Mary explained, as she demonstrated by having John toss the ball to her. "It's easy. Even my toddlers are doing it!" Catching the ball from John, Mary then turned towards WALL•E and asked, "You ready to try a catch?"

WALL•E looked at her intently, trying to compute what to do based on what he saw. Mary gently tossed the ball at him. WALL•E moved his arms somewhat, but the ball just bounced off his cube and rolled back towards Mary.

"It's okay, WALL•E," Mary said laughing, "Good try!" She moved closer to him and demonstrated. "Here, extend your arms forward, with your hands tilted towards each other, like this."

WALL•E complied, looking briefly down at his hands as they assumed the requested posture. Then he looked back at Mary, expectantly.

"Now, gently grab and hold the ball when it reaches your hands," Mary gently instructed him as she again gave the ball a light toss.

This time, WALL•E's hands deftly moved and pivoted as the ball touched them, and suddenly he was holding the ball! He looked at the ball somewhat surprised at what he'd managed to do, as the rest of the group cheered his accomplishment. WALL•E emitted a series of happy beeps and whistles at the appreciation he was getting, as he looked around at everyone in simple delight.

Then he tossed the ball back to Mary, who caught it and tossed the ball back a little higher towards him. This time WALL•E reached up and grabbed it with ease, as the group around him cheered him again.

The sight of all this filled EVE with a deep, pure joy for a moment, as she watched from the ramp. _Caring for you, seeing you grow in awareness, is perfection for me,_ she mused to herself, reveling in the satisfaction of fulfilling this aspect of her chosen commitment. Part of her wanted to join in with WALL•E, but part of her just wanted to delight in continuing to savor this joyful scene of the new WALL•E innocently learning and playing with his friends.

But then EVE started to sense her joy change to mixed feelings as she once again realized, _The real WALL•E isn't enjoying this. He is still trapped, lost._

EVE looked down with a degree of sadness. Both her commitment, and seemingly WALL•E himself, were almost haunting her, reminding her of the task, the quest, she had yet to resolve.

"Eee-vaah!"

EVE was woken out of her meditation to see the new WALL•E happily gesturing towards her with the ball in his hands. Soon, he tossed it towards her. EVE easily caught it and tossed it back towards him. She didn't say anything, but her eye forms betrayed her inner conflict and sadness.

As he caught the ball again, the new WALL•E had already come to know EVE well enough to recognize when she was sad. His systems knew that EVE being sad was not acceptable. Leaving his circle of friends, he motored towards her, up the truck's ramp, still holding the ball he had caught from her.

"Eee-vaah," he said with gentle concern in his voice, as he came to a stop in front of her.

EVE held her hands together in front of her, as her commitment basically forced her to look up at him, sadness still in her eye forms.

"Eee-vaah?" the new WALL•E asked holding up the ball in front of her and casting a glance back to his circle of friends; calculating that she might become happy as he was if she would toss the ball with him and his friends.

EVE blinked at him sadly, and then looked back down. "Conflicted . . . you . . . old WALL•E," her commitment forced her to share with him.

WALL•E let the ball drop out of his hands and roll down the ramp, as he moved almost instinctively to embrace EVE. His systems had learned that hugs always made EVE better.

EVE likewise instinctively embraced WALL•E as well, and let herself cry in his arms. _I am happy for you,_ she blurted out in Axiom beeps, _but I still miss the old WALL•E, your original self, _she beeped tearfully.

WALL•E's systems were still trying to comprehend this difficult machine dialect EVE was speaking. He was getting bits of it, but it just wasn't matching up with any conclusions his consciousness could understand.

"Eee-vaah . . . sad," was all he could offer her from what his optics and audio sensors were able to observe, as he continued to hold her.

"Yes, WALL•E" she softly concurred, "Eee-vaah sad."

"Thank you," she added, before continuing with _Axiom _beeps, _Thank you for understanding_.

EVE had to give this WALL•E credit. He was trying very hard to become an understanding, even loving, companion for her . . . and his systems were learning fast. She computed that he would soon be able to approximate the old WALL•E's behavior, even his mannerisms, at better than a 90 percent level. She could almost be content to come to love just this new WALL•E . . . almost.

But EVE just wasn't able to be content with the WALL•E she now had before her. Every time she would begin to experience happiness with this new WALL•E, thoughts of his old self would now soon begin to haunt her. Her commitment was to all of WALL•E — both his current self, but also to his old self. EVE realized her commitment was indeed doing its job in bringing up these thoughts and feelings for the old WALL•E that seemed to divide her, even tear her consciousness in two.

Now though, she half wished it wasn't. EVE felt she had committed herself into a trap — an irresolvable trap where one minute she would experience the profound happiness she had wanted; only to find longing, sadness and even guilt welling up within her a short time later.

_Warning, commitment error . . . unacceptable levels of internal emotional conflict detected,_ EVE's internal diagnostics alerted her again in their now all too familiar way. _Do you wish to revise commitment, or delete or diminish internal emotional conflict?_

_No!_ EVE found herself commanding once again. _I can't,_ she sadly thought to herself, _otherwise there's nothing to compel me to continue to keep trying to reach WALL•E and bring him back. I promised I would never, ever give up on him, and I won't . . . I WON'T!_ she almost screamed within herself.

EVE awoke out of her inner conflict, and looked up at the concerned faces of the people that were now gathering around her and WALL•E. She and WALL•E could not experience or share anything in private anymore, except when they went to sleep at night — someone, usually a number of someones, were always around now.

"EVE, you're crying again." Captain McCrea observed as he joined the group gathering around her and WALL•E. "Let's maybe get you over to the Repair Ward onboard the _Axiom_ and get you checked out," he offered.

"No," EVE responded, shaking her head with a now determined look in her eye forms. "Must . . . find . . . old . . . WALL•E," she affirmed.

"EVE, WALL•E seems to be well on his way towards becoming his old self," McCrea responded. "You're doing a terrific job actually towards bringing him back as it is!"

"No," EVE said once again, "Not same!"

EVE left WALL•E's embrace and took Captain McCrea's hand as she led him inside the truck to the computer console. EVE was now determined to express herself, to make someone, even the Captain, understand.

EVE paused as they stopped in front of the console. She seemed to sigh or take a deep breath, and then she began beeping fast and with determination at the console in _Axiom_, as the computer came to life and began to audibly translate.

"Captain, it is not the same," the computer conveyed. "I will always know the difference. I know where WALL•E is. The old self of WALL•E is trapped, dormant within his frame. Who he was is still there in the form of data and code that cannot be read! I need to find an original component or processor from him that was lost somehow, somewhere, to access this original code and truly bring him back."

"I must do this for him," the computer paused as EVE finished beeping, and looked up at him. The computer finally identified the closest English equivalent words, as it concluded, ". . . out of love."

Captain McCrea looked at EVE, stunned at those final words, even though he now remembered seeing how close she had been to WALL•E in recent days.

"EVE," he hesitatingly responded. "I had no idea . . . well, actually I did. But I just couldn't believe it could happen . . . for you . . . to you," he stammered.

EVE gently took McCrea's hand in hers as she looked at him, hoping he would comprehend why she was willing to endure the sadness and conflict she was experiencing.

McCrea composed himself. "I understand, EVE," he finally said. "You can't just leave part of him behind, can you, especially now that you know where he is. You just need to find that missing part, that key, to free him."

"Thank you," EVE responded with relief and gratitude at finally having someone empathize with her.

"You know," McCrea added, with a gleam forming in his eyes, "You've done the impossible before, EVE. I think you'll do it again. I'll even help. Now what are we looking for?"

Now it was EVE's turn to be surprised. Experiencing a quiet but welcome surge of joyous determination, EVE turned back to the console, and beeped, _Access WALL•E 1 files onboard Axiom and display a Type 17 Processor on the kind of circuit board that was likely lost from WALL•E 1._

A weathered circuit board now appeared and rotated on the console's holoscreen.

_Reduce to actual size,_ EVE beeped. The board on the screen now shrank to a miniscule size, almost smaller than a human finger.

"Wow, EVE. That's not going to be eas—" McCrea stopped himself, realizing that EVE needed his support and encouragement, not his doubts. He corrected himself. "Copy this to my Typing-bot through the console here, and we'll make sure word gets out for folks to keep a look out for this," McCrea reassured optimistically.

Starting to leave, McCrea paused and turned back towards her. "EVE," he said, "WALL•E is very lucky to have you care for . . . love him, the way you do."

EVE looked at the Captain as she beeped at the console. The computer translated, "He is the one who showed me how."

— — — — —

The new WALL•E had remained on the truck's ramp, watching and hearing all that had been occurring between EVE and Captain McCrea. His optics now followed the Captain as he passed by, saying a friendly, "See you later, WALL•E," as he left.

This WALL•E didn't understand all of it, as he looked downwards, trying to process what he had been seeing and hearing. But what parts he did comprehend began to give him uncomfortable sensations of concern, even fear.


	12. Chapter 12

After the Captain left, EVE knew it was time to resume her quest, and launch the search for WALL•E's missing component in earnest. It just seemed like an overwhelming challenge to her — looking for such a tiny circuit board, lost somewhere across such a vast area where it might have fallen, even perhaps covered up by a sand storm by now.

EVE realized she needed help and encouragement even to begin this task though, and she knew whom she now needed to go and see.

She hovered through the truck towards the ramp where WALL•E still was.

"Join me?" she asked him, gesturing with a fin indicating she was going on a trip towards the _Axiom_.

WALL•E optics moved up into a fixed gaze on her. He didn't say a thing.

EVE could tell something was wrong. He had been happy, even animated, just moments ago. But now he was silent, unmoving.

"What?" she simply asked him.

WALL•E looked down. His feelings of uncertainty, and even fear, were growing within him as his processors began to comprehend more and more of what he had seen and heard just moments ago. But he didn't have the language to begin describing what he was feeling. All he could think to do was to employ his default error indication of blinking his LED light on and off, to indicate he had a problem. His problem was a new sensation . . . fear — fear that he was somehow in the way now, and not wanted.

EVE noticed his blinking LED light and became concerned. She gently took his hand in hers. But to her surprise, he withdrew his hand.

Now EVE was worried.

"WALL•E . . ." she said to him with concern in her eye forms, trying to get him to look up at her.

He just continued to look downward, as he proceeded to further withdraw his hands and arms into his cube.

With an increasing sense of anxiousness, EVE really wanted to reach WALL•E now, to understand what was going on within him — to help him.

EVE urgently queried her systems, wondering what she could do.

She began to calculate that it was likely more a software or data problem than a hardware problem. A reference to human psychologists popped into her consciousness. But EVE realized there were no such things for robots, even sentient ones. She reasoned that she was already likely the closest thing to a psychoanalyst he could have, since she knew more about him than anyone else — yet she felt she could understand so little about him right now.

_Take him to the Engineering Lab for a full diagnostic,_ her systems finally counseled.

EVE was glad that among the gifts she and WALL•E had recently been given was a pair of full-time Steward-bots and their own hover transport. She called in _Axiom_ for the Stewards and the transport, who emerged from a hastily-erected protective shelter on one side of the truck — there simply wasn't room for them inside the truck itself! M-O was fortunately still around, and quickly hopped in to drive the hover transport as it passed near him. EVE then gently lifted WALL•E onto the transport once it arrived in front of them. At least he didn't resist. But his Status LED was still blinking, and he was still downcast.

EVE's search would have to wait for now.

_Take us to the Axiom's Engineering Lab,_ she instructed the Steward-bots and M-O, as she took her place behind an unresponsive WALL•E and proceeded to hold him; as much to try and reassure him, as for safe travel. Still, there was no response from him. He had now emotionally withdrawn into himself, and EVE was determined to find out why.

Enroute, EVE initiated a wireless link to the transport's onboard communications transceiver, and sent a message ahead to Typing-bot . . . _I want to talk with you about searching for a component I believe has been missing from WALL•E. But he is having a serious problem right now, and we are enroute to the Engineering Lab._

_Lab cleared and available. I will talk with you when you are there,_ the response came back.

_Thank you, Typing-bot,_ EVE concluded, grateful that he was there for her, especially when she needed him to be.

At the same time, M-O was sending messages to their robot friends, alerting them that WALL•E was having a problem, and that they should come to the Lab.

EVE and WALL•E entered the _Axiom_ aboard their transport, and soon they arrived at the Lab once again. Some of their robot friends were already there to greet them. Once the transport came to a stop, EVE picked up WALL•E, placing him on the scanning table.

Moving down to her now familiar station at the table's side, she beeped, _Commence hardware and software diagnostic scans of WALL•E 1. Cross-reference with previous scans, and report anomalies._ EVE wasn't going to waste time in getting to the bottom of WALL•E's problem.

Blue rays once again began sweeping across WALL•E, as the table started audibly reporting back via the ship's computer, and a holoscreen emerged at the table's side with visual schematics and scan data.

"Hardware scan, no new anomalies detected." the ship's computer voice reported.

"Software scan . . . subroutine anomalies detected," the voice alerted though a short time later.

_Elaborate,_ EVE beeped, urgently.

"New anomalous subroutines approximating human emotions of worthlessness and depression have now become dominant within WALL•E 1." the computer voice matter-of-factly responded.

_How did __**that**__ happen?_ EVE wondered to herself.

_Recommended treatment?_ EVE queried.

"Standard treatment calls for system erasure and re-installation." the ship's computer replied.

_Unacceptable! Do not initiate!_ EVE beeped in objection. "No!" she added in English, in an attempt to reassure WALL•E that such a treatment was not going to happen, in case he understood what the computer had said.

_Well,_ she thought as she paused now, _at least I know why WALL•E is acting the way he is. The question remains, how did this happen?_

A second holoscreen emerged beside the table, this time with Typing-bot's image on it.

_I detected your arrival at the Lab,_ he began in his customary glacial way. _I also see WALL•E's scan results._

_You see everything,_ EVE beeped almost with amusement.

_I do,_ he simply replied.

_How do you think he got this way?_ she asked Typing-bot.

_He likely overheard you,_ Typing-bot responded.

_Overheard me?_ EVE queried.

_Your translated conversation with the Captain — I saw it, WALL•E likely heard it,_ Typing-bot elaborated, having seen EVE's translations as she had used her computer console, as well as knowing WALL•E was near the truck at the time.

_Actually, he is hearing us now, though fortunately he cannot understand Axiom,_ Typing-bot cautioned, even though WALL•E was giving no indication of being aware of anything at the moment, at least as far as EVE could detect.

She quickly retrieved and re-ran her computer-translated conversation with the Captain in her consciousness. A cold shock of guilt started to run through her as she realized how WALL•E might have perceived what she and the Captain had been discussing in English.

EVE rushed up onto the table to WALL•E's side, passing right through the holoscreen with Typing-bot on it.

"Eee-vaah so sorry," she apologized to WALL•E, placing her fins on his cube.

There was no response from WALL•E. He continued to look downward, unmoving, with only his Status LED continuing to blink on and off.

_Typing-bot, how do I reach him?_ EVE beeped, as she continued to look at WALL•E with very worried eye forms.

_Show him he matters to you — that you value him, care about him, as he is,_ Typing-bot advised her.

_Love . . ._ EVE's commitment chimed in to her consciousness, elegantly translating and summarizing Typing-bot's advice for her.

EVE was grateful for this new insight and awareness. But she hesitated and looked down, as she computed possible implications for what might happen to the new WALL•E if she did indeed find the missing component that might allow the original WALL•E to return. EVE shook her head, chiding herself for not having considered this before. She realized the new WALL•E had already likely been doing just that.

EVE angled herself down, almost horizontally in front of him, as she looked up into his optics, ensuring that he could see her eye forms — calculating that he could not ignore optic-to-eye form contact with her.

"WALL•E . . . Eee-vaah understands . . ." she looked at him as earnestly as she could, "You matter . . . Eee-vaah cares."

WALL•E's optics slowly moved and refocused on her.

EVE looked away briefly. _This is so difficult! _she beeped in exasperation, as she almost cursed in _Axiom _at the barrier of language, and seemingly of understanding, between them.

But EVE softened and returned her gaze towards his optics.

"WALL•E?" she said gently, as she resumed her gentle demeanor towards him. He continued to look at her, but offered no other response.

_I've hurt you, haven't I?_ she sadly admitted to herself as she continued to look at him. _You weren't ready to hear that we might try to bring your original self back to life, were you?_

"You . . . are . . . safe," EVE said to WALL•E slowly and deliberately, trying again to reach and reassure him.

"You . . . are . . . okay," she re-emphasized to him.

"No!" he finally responded. "Not okay!"

EVE was relieved to hear even a negative, rejecting response from him at this point.

She now knew that she and WALL•E needed time, and privacy, to talk this out as best they could, and recover from it all.

"Home . . ." she said, as she arose beside him. Slowly, tentatively, she put her arms around him, and began to pick him up to move him off the table to the hover transport. He did not resist or object, but continued to look downwards though and his Status LED was still blinking.

_I will talk with you later about the search,_ EVE beeped to Typing-bot, as she carried WALL•E to the transport.

_I understand,_ Typing-bot replied, as his holoscreen faded out.

EVE was reminded afresh of the responsibility her commitment carried towards both caring for, and protecting, the new WALL•E, as well as the old. She realized this new WALL•E would now have to become part of her quest in bringing the original WALL•E back, and that any possible future for the original WALL•E would have to accommodate the needs and life of the new WALL•E as well.

EVE didn't know at the moment how she would do that. She felt her loyalties and love start to become divided between them. But do it she would . . . for both her old and new WALL•Es.


	13. Chapter 13

EVE lifted WALL•E off the transport down onto the truck's ramp when they had arrived home, and sent the transport and the Steward-bots off to their "garage". As she did though, she thought about the Steward-bots having to live in the robot equivalent of a tent. She resolved to get them a better home to live in . . . as soon as she had repaired her relationship with WALL•E.

She turned to find WALL•E motoring off to his sleeping spot in a shelf, which he proceeded to cube up and withdraw into.

"WALL•E . . ." EVE said to him in a somewhat pleading tone, "Talk . . . Eee-vaah needs talk . . . with you." Knowing he understood only English, EVE was really trying to communicate with him in that language.

But WALL•E was unresponsive. In fact, he had gone to sleep.

EVE suddenly felt lonely for the first time in a while, as she hovered looking at him. She had never conceived that something like this could come between them. She had never believed that this new WALL•E could ever shut her out. Now she was feeling the pain of emotional hurt herself.

She reached down and touched his cube. She even tilted down and gave him a spark-kiss. Nothing, no response.

"WALL•E . . ." EVE said sadly.

But she now realized there was nothing more she could do until he woke up the next day. With a heavy sense of resignation, she closed the truck's rear door, and then unwrapped and gave Hal a new sponge cake. _At least he's happy,_ she thought looking at the cockroach happily settling into his cake. Then with a sigh, EVE closed up and went dormant herself.

— — — — —

_0645 — reboot._

EVE awoke. As her systems came online and her memories returned, she looked towards where WALL•E was sleeping . . . but he had gone!

_Oh no, not this again,_ she thought, remembering back to the first days of her quest when the then unaware new WALL•E would just automatically take off in the morning in search of trash to cube. She now looked over to see the truck's door was already open.

EVE had only been awake for 10 seconds, and already her day was very hard on her.

EVE needed the help and support of a friend, now. She hovered over to the computer console, and opened a comm link with Typing-bot. His image appeared on the holoscreen.

_WALL•E's gone!_ she beeped at him urgently. _He turned away from me and went right to sleep when I got him home yesterday, and now he left before I woke up this morning._

_His disappointment must be deep,_ Typing-bot observed.

_What do I __**do**__ about it??_ EVE beeped in exasperation at the obviousness of Typing-bot's statement.

_Draw out his empathy — show him your own hurt. Show your own determination to keep reaching him. He is reassured by actions more than words,_ Typing-bot advised. _Do not give up._

_When does something become easy for me?_ she beeped angrily in response.

_EVE,_ Typing-bot counseled sympathetically, _I understand. He is scared, feeling unwanted. Help him to feel differently . . . to feel better about himself. Then he will feel better about you. Showing him that you are seeking him out will help._

_Do you know where he is?_ EVE asked, her anger diminishing, but still looking down and away from the screen.

_I have already located him. The Steward-bots keep track of him whenever he leaves your truck._ Typing-bot said, trying to reassure her. _He is on the plateau where your ARV landed near here._

_Thank you,_ she said with mixed feelings, as she took off out of the truck into the air.

Scanning the plateau from above, she soon found WALL•E, motoring slowly along. She hovered down in front of him. EVE could have been very angry with him, but her commitment and memories of her conversation with Typing-bot reminded her that wouldn't help.

So EVE let her anger transform into sadness in front of WALL•E, and gently started crying. He stopped near her, and looked up into her eye forms.

"Hurt?" he finally asked after what seemed like an interminable moment of silence between them, as she allowed her sobs to continue.

"Yes," she sadly responded.

"Mee, too," he echoed, looking downwards.

"Eee-vaah sorry," she apologized.

EVE did feel wounded now though. Yes, she had erred in having the conversation she did with the Captain within WALL•E's hearing. But she didn't deserve to feel like she was.

_That conversation was an innocent mistake! _she protested within herself. _It was simply the result of my failure to consider what recovering the old WALL•E could mean for the new, _she began to rationalize tearfully.

_I love WALL•E — BOTH of him! _she painfully reaffirmed to herself.

But EVE now felt her oversights and failures were coming back to bite at her, hard. Her own self-criticisms were suddenly far more painful than the new WALL•E's cold shoulder towards her had been.

"Want . . . life," he finally said, after another moment of awkward silence.

"I know," she replied with understanding, although she hadn't yet figured out how both the old and new WALL•Es could exist together. That hurt her, too.

This awareness started to tear her apart. This time EVE let it tear at her consciousness. She started wailing in pain from her inner conflict, as she covered her visor with her fins.

WALL•E's consciousness could not bear to see her like this. He was beginning to realize what it was to truly care for another, regardless of what it might mean for himself. New subroutines of awareness and feeling were now being generated within him at a furious pace.

"No," he said, moving toward a now crying EVE. "No," he simply said as he took her sobbing form into his arms. WALL•E finally returned his Status LED to its normal state.

EVE now welcomed his embrace, extending her fins around him.

"What . . . do?" she asked him, sobbing.

"Do . . . right," he responded.

"Do right?" she asked, her crying subsiding.

WALL•E nodded yes.

EVE was stunned.

"Trust . . . me . . . us?" she asked with uncertainty.

"Trust," WALL•E concurred. He trusted that she would do what was right for both of them. Having spent even just the early morning wandering alone, WALL•E now decided that he did not want to live like that. Whatever would happen, WALL•E wanted his life, or the end of it, to be tied to EVE.

"You . . . valued," EVE said, trying to convey how much she cared about him, and would never want to hurt him, as her eye forms began to express delight and awe with him.

"You, too!" he quipped back, much to EVE's relief and now laughing delight.

Feeling better, EVE wanted to give him a gift now — a gift of thanks, for forgiving her and giving her his trust that she would do the right thing for both of them.

"Gift . . . Fly with me," she asked, ". . . please?"

EVE could think of no greater gift to give WALL•E than to have him share in her joy of soaring through the skies.

"Trust," WALL•E said affirmatively, as he turned his back towards her and raised his arms, inviting her to pick him up.

EVE squealed with delight and joy — first giving WALL•E a big hug of gratitude, before picking him up, and launching into the sky.

"WHOAA!" he said with a degree of alarm, as the ground shrank away beneath them. WALL•E retracted his treads into his cube, partly out of nervousness, as much as to help EVE fly.

EVE held WALL•E tight, as she warmly said, "Trust!"

"Trr-rr-uuu-ss-st-tt," WALL•E nervously concurred, trying to control his jitters as they soared together above the still-cluttered cityscape.

EVE knew one thing that would make WALL•E feel better. Touching her visor to the back of one of his optics, she gave him a good strong spark-kiss!

_*Zzaapp!!*_

"Aw-ww-ww-ww!" WALL•E now warbled with happiness. That had done it . . . he now trusted her! He could no longer help but trust her!

EVE chuckled with delight as she now accelerated, starting some gentle turns back and forth, before powering into a vertical loop with him!

"AYYYEEEEE!" WALL•E exclaimed, half in panic, but half in exhilaration now.

Completing the loop, EVE became emboldened, and initiated a gentle roll. She tightened the next two rolls, before sensory alarms alerted her that G-forces were starting to cause WALL•E to slip out of her arms. She quickly rolled to inverted flight on her back with him resting on top of her, while she slowed and re-adjusted her grip on him. Her fins were now braced firmly under his arms, and her fingers were now safely tucked around the front edges of his cube.

"Okay?" WALL•E asked nervously.

"Okay," EVE reassured warmly.

She rolled back to normal flight, and then re-accelerated into a banked curve to test her grip on him. No slippage now. So off they went, into a rolling, corkscrew power climb thousands of feet into the sky!

"Weeeeee!!" EVE exclaimed.

WALL•E was somewhat less excited however.

Then to give him a break, EVE chose to fly straight and level for a while, hopefully allowing WALL•E to relax and begin enjoying the spectacular views around them. EVE thought back to the last time she had really flown with WALL•E . . . with his original self, in space around the _Axiom_. Now she was enjoying an equally memorable experience in the skies of Earth, with the new WALL•E.

EVE didn't want to let go of either WALL•E now.

She wanted to keep on flying some more. "Okay, fly . . . more?" she asked WALL•E.

"Okay!" WALL•E said, beginning to now honestly enjoy this form of travel, and freedom, with EVE. So they flew on!

First they went back near their starting point and buzzed low over the two Steward-bots that had been following WALL•E, as EVE yelled a dismissal in _Axiom_ for the now confused Steward-bots to return to their kiosks in their garage. EVE knew she and WALL•E would be gone for a while!

Then EVE turned east and started climbing again, calculating she could race the setting sun turning west as they went back towards home. So she accelerated to supersonic speed eastwards, as she continued climbing through the dusty sky, above the layers of scattered clouds. EVE couldn't even hear WALL•E say, "WHOAA!" in amazement as they first broke the sound barrier, and frankly neither could he!

Finally, they reached a point where the sky and clouds turned a brilliant red and faded around them as the sun began to set. EVE slowed and faced them west so that they could enjoy this first sunset together. Then she zoomed westward, and slowed again so they could enjoy a second, and then a third. EVE and WALL•E enjoyed 15 sunsets before they finally set down at home.

When they finally entered their truck, holding hands once again, WALL•E turned to EVE, and said a sincere, "Thannk youu."

But he wanted to do more for her now.

"Help finnd boarrrd!" he said.

That stopped EVE, as she looked at him. This new WALL•E was now offering to help her find the original WALL•E's component that might mean the end of life as this WALL•E knew it, or at least a big change for him!

"Sure?" she asked him.

WALL•E gave her a definitive nod yes.

He computed that if EVE kept him as safe as she did in the skies, she would safeguard him no matter what. If she didn't care about him, she could have simply dropped him at any time, he reasoned. And if she couldn't safeguard him, or didn't . . . he assessed that his life likely wouldn't be any better than had been today. Flying with EVE had turned out to be the thrilling experience of a lifetime for WALL•E. He was content now, and he could no longer imagine life without EVE. He simply didn't want to.

. . . And he trusted EVE to do what was right.

But EVE had one more surprise for him this evening.

Once he had settled into his sleeping space on the shelf at floor level, EVE slyly moved over and touched the control button that rotated and raised the shelf — not much, but just so he would be on an even level with her head as she went to sleep near him, so each would be the first thing that the other saw in the morning.

"Whoa! . . ." WALL•E exclaimed as he felt his shelf move upwards. Then his optics hit the shelf above them with a loud bang as they emerged to see what was happening!

"Sorry!" EVE said as she rushed over to him, trying both to keep him safely on the shelf, and checking to see that he was okay.

"Eee-vaah?" WALL•E sleepily asked, wondering what was going on.

"Shhhh . . . okay . . ." she practically whispered to him, trying to lull him back to sleep.

Trusting her, WALL•E's optics slowly retracted as he faded off to sleep again.

Just to be sure he would be safe though, EVE reached into the shelf, extending her arms around his now sleeping cube, as her head retracted and her eye forms faded out for the night.


	14. Chapter 14

EVE was awakened by the sound of WALL•E's low charge alert, before he was. She couldn't help but hear it, as it sounded off loudly almost right next to her audio sensor as she held him in her dormancy. While it woke her up with a start, her systems and memories soon allowed her to appraise that the situation was safe.

EVE just paused and looked at WALL•E for a moment up close, before he awoke. She allowed herself to marvel at him, at this almost incredibly unselfish and acquiescent consciousness who had yesterday freely given her his complete trust, even his future and his life . . . and even volunteered to help find the key piece of the previous self he knew almost nothing about!

She paused in awe, thinking on what he had given her, and who he now was. EVE was moved to tears of wonder as she held him tightly. Here was this wonderful, simple being before her who had given her all that he had, and was. She felt almost unworthy of him now.

"You . . ." she softly said with great love. She couldn't say anything else.

All of a sudden, EVE wasn't so sure she wanted to find that missing circuit board any more. She looked downward though, ashamed of such a thought; but at the same time now deeply conflicted.

This new WALL•E, she realized, was becoming every bit the equal of the other — and he had done it with her help in only a matter of days, while the other WALL•E had had to become the wonderful being he was on his own, over the span of some 700 years. And the original WALL•E, too, had freely offered himself to help EVE and others.

EVE was deeply torn. She no longer knew what to do as soft tears overwhelmed her.

WALL•E's optics began to emerge, and focused on EVE's sad, tearful eye forms in front of them.

"Eee-vaah?" he groggily asked as he became aware of both her, and his need for a charge.

"WALL•E . . ." EVE gently sobbed, burying her visor against his cube. "What . . . do?" _What do I do?_ she also beeped in _Axiom_ without thinking.

Managing to recall their conversation of the day before as his own systems were coming online, WALL•E repeated, "Do right."

"What's right?" EVE asked sadly, still burying her visor against him while looking off to one side.

WALL•E didn't have a ready answer for that. He thought she would. All he could do was extend his own arms and hold her.

They both became conscious again of his beeping Low Charge alarm.

"Here . . ." she said, gently picking him up and out of the shelf. EVE then gently carried WALL•E over to the control lever for the truck's door.

"Door?" she asked. Understanding, he reached over while she held him and pulled the lever, opening the door. Once the door was open, she flew him up to the truck's roof and gently set him down. WALL•E opened his solar flaps and proceeded to bask looking up at the Sun. EVE remained next to him, looking down with her fins folded in front of her.

They both continued to think to themselves quietly for a moment while WALL•E recharged. WALL•E looked over at EVE though, and extended a hand. EVE quietly accepted his hand in hers, and looked back down.

Looking at her, WALL•E computed that EVE had a problem. She was too quiet, withdrawn — like he had been yesterday. He didn't like those feelings, and didn't want EVE to have those feelings either. He remembered it had helped them both when he identified her problem of feeling hurt yesterday; so he decided to try again now, drawing on his experiences of what had troubled her before.

"Circuit boarrd?" WALL•E asked, assessing what EVE's problem might be.

"Circuit board," EVE confirmed as she looked at him briefly, but then faced back down while continuing to hold his hand. She calculated that they were both referring as much to the original WALL•E, as they were to the board; and were just using the spoken language capabilities they each had to share their thoughts as best they could.

"Find . . . or forget board?" EVE offered as she stared downwards.

She was so conflicted, in so much pain now within her consciousness, that she was about ready to just give in and amend her commitment . . . if nothing else than to bring her anguish and inner division to an end.

WALL•E looked down and paused, processing what EVE had just offered him. She was offering him her trust and future now — just as he had offered his to her the day before. She was also offering him the future of the other WALL•E, whom he only had a vague concept of. He looked back at EVE as she closed her eye forms in deep pain.

_*Bong!*_

WALL•E's charge had just completed, and his solar flaps folded up into his cube. WALL•E now moved over and embraced EVE.

"WALL•E . . . help," he offered, although even he didn't know what that help might be.

EVE looked away, sighed, and tried to clear her consciousness. She was being almost bombarded by sub-directives and guidance from both "sides" of her commitment now.

"Stop!" EVE said out loud without thinking.

WALL•E immediately complied, let go of her, and moved back; thinking she was addressing him.

"No . . . no," EVE said apologetically, "Not you . . . me . . ." she tried to clarify, pointing to her own head. "War . . . in here," she said as she looked sadly at him.

WALL•E was saddened as he began to comprehend the depth of her conflict. While he had few data resources on human history and analogies, he knew 'war' was serious. He computed what her warring choices might be.

"Circuit boarrd . . . mmee?" he asked.

"Yes," EVE confirmed sadly.

WALL•E now understood. He drew her closer, and held her more tightly. He wished he had an answer for her, an easy one that would make EVE feel better.

_Everything,_ he thought. WALL•E simply wanted EVE to be happy. For now, that could mean having both the circuit board — the other WALL•E — and him.

_Trust,_ he also thought. Just as things had worked out so far, just as he had enjoyed a safe flight with EVE yesterday — they could just trust that things would work out for them if they found the circuit board.

"Find boarrd . . . trust," he said optimistically, offering the results of his processing.

EVE looked up at him now. Her eye forms grew warm with appreciation at his simple, yet profound suggestion.

But she looked down hesitating, and then cautiously back up at him.

"You . . . help?" she asked tentatively, hardly believing he would be suggesting something that could mean a change, or end, for him.

WALL•E nodded, "Yyess . . . help!" already perceiving how much this was encouraging EVE.

"WALL•E . . ." EVE said now with tearful gratitude and joy as she hugged him tightly, while lifting them both off the ground and spinning around with him.

"Keep you . . ." she announced warmly to him, trying to let him know that regardless of what happened, she wanted to keep this WALL•E with her. Despite her doubts about the future — as WALL•E had just counseled with surprising wisdom, for now EVE would simply have to trust that things would work out.

The new WALL•E though was simply happy that he had made EVE happy. Nothing else mattered to him.

— — — — —

With her new WALL•E now a full and even supportive partner in her quest — EVE still could not quite believe her incredible fortune there — she was ready to launch her search for the original WALL•E's missing component. EVE found that she once again had all the dedication and mission-completing drive she had once had. She had the new WALL•E beside her, and him to thank for all the positive joy and energy she was now feeling.

EVE could not stop herself from hugging WALL•E, or at least having a fin around him. She had never felt so good, or so grateful. For his part, WALL•E just continued to be happy — very happy.

"Need more help," EVE said to WALL•E, pointing towards the _Axiom_ as they turned to come off the truck's roof. She knew they would need all the help they could get in mounting the search, and covering the area she anticipated might be necessary.

EVE called in _Axiom_ for the hover transport and the Steward-bots. Then, she remembered the pledge she had made to herself.

_After this trip,_ she addressed the Steward-bots and the transport, _please return to residing onboard the Axiom for now, unless I tell you 'stand by.' I can call you when I need you via my console or a comm link. There is no reason you should have to continue living in that . . . tent!"_

Even though the Steward-bots and the transport were not programmed to be sentient or self-aware as she, and now WALL•E, were; EVE felt good about treating them at least decently.

She also added,_ I will watch over WALL•E now, you no longer need to _— countermanding Typing-bot's apparent directive to the Steward-bots to keep track of WALL•E. Otherwise, she reasoned, the Steward-bots would never go home to the _Axiom_! EVE was confident that while there could of course be more misunderstandings between her and WALL•E, they had established a new and firm foundation of trust. She just felt she would no longer really have to worry about him running off anymore.

As they boarded the transport, EVE sent a comm message to Typing-bot, _I am ready to discuss that search with you now_.

_Ready to see you,_ came the reply.

EVE just squealed with delight now, squeezing and nuzzling WALL•E from behind as they went along on the transport to the _Axiom_. Everything seemed to be going right. EVE was going to enjoy the moment!

— — — — —

Soon, they arrived onboard the _Axiom_ at Typing-bot's lobby. Typing-bot noticed EVE's now-buoyant demeanor as evidenced by her actions and eye forms, and couldn't help being happy for her himself.

Lifting WALL•E off the hover transport, and telling the transport and the Steward-bots to stand by, EVE turned and led WALL•E over to Typing-bot.

_You feel better,_ Typing-bot observed before EVE could even start their conversation.

_Yes,_ she concurred, beeping with more joy than usual, _and I have this WALL•E to thank for it. He both suggested I proceed with the search for the original WALL•E's missing component, and offered to help me search for it! I still cannot believe he would do that for me._

_Your happiness is his. Remember to likewise make his yours, _Typing-bot counseled.

EVE looked at WALL•E. _Yes, you are right,_ _I will not forget that,_ she beeped in response.

EVE's joy momentarily diminished, as she briefly thought about this WALL•E's happiness into the future, and the possible risks to it. Resuming with her purpose however, EVE began, _We're here to ask for your help in searching for what I now believe is a missing component from the original WALL•E . . ._

_. . . A Type 17 Processor, with missing subroutines key to reviving the original WALL•E's consciousness . . . possibly on a small circuit board,_ Typing-bot interjected.

_You can see everything, can't you,_ countered EVE almost smiling to herself. _You don't know where it is, do you? _she beeped raising an eye form in mock suspicion.

_Unfortunately I do not._ Typing-bot responded. _But the other EVE probes are at your disposal, and news of the missing board has already gone out. If it can be found, everyone will help._

_. . . If it cannot, I believe the best part of WALL•E is already with you,_ Typing-bot warmly concluded.

EVE again looked at WALL•E. _Yes . . . I am starting to see that, _she beeped at Typing-bot, as she looked again at WALL•E and gave him a gentle squeeze with her fin.

EVE turned to find her four sister EVE probes from the Axiom Return Vehicle now assembled at the entrance to Typing-bot's lobby. While her life, her world, and her awareness had all changed; EVE could perceive from their indifferent, unblinking demeanors that theirs had not. They did not look around, vary their posture, or even attempt to mimic human blinking the way she did. They were all uniformly at attention, appeared to be all business, and simply ready to proceed with their directive.

Upon seeing them, WALL•E was a little confused.

"Eee-vaah?" he asked, questioningly.

"Eee-vaah," EVE said, pointing to herself, trying to let him know she was his only 'Eee-vaah'.

"They'rrre . . . probes," she said hesitantly, now looking at them.

EVE just didn't want to confuse WALL•E more than he already was. She also didn't want him getting too close to them; recalling she hadn't exactly been very nice to him, or rather to the previous WALL•E, when she first met him while following her original directive.

Her caution wasn't based on jealousy at all . . . at least that's what she told herself.

"Stay . . . close . . . with me," she advised WALL•E, taking his hand while she went and addressed the other EVEs.

Remembering her own basic programming and directives that she had once received, EVE just decided the best approach for now would be to ensure they had the clear directives and protocols they needed, and leave any more human-like interactions or socializing for another time. She remembered that EVE probes were intended to function alone. They weren't programmed to socialize, or desire it. That she did now seemed like something of a fluke, an error, even a miracle to EVE. She had grown, changed — they seemed to have not. That saddened her slightly.

But EVE brought herself back to the task at hand.

_You have your directive?_ she beeped at them.

_Affirmative,_ the other EVEs beeped in unison. _Find a weathered Type 17 Processor or equivalent circuit board, believed lost from WALL•E 1._

_Good. Now receive directive supplementals, _EVE further instructed. _Begin search at, in, and under the Axiom's Holo-Detector_. _If negative, Probes 2 and 3, you will search along direct routes from the Detector to Entry Port 1, while Probes 4 and 5 you will search the Garbage Bay, in case the board has been cleaned up by sanitation-bots._

Turning for a moment to Typing-bot, and changing to a friendlier demeanor, EVE asked,_ "Please could you raise the Holo-Detector, and halt any work in the Garbage Bay for now. Thank you."_

Once again facing the probes, EVE resumed her "all-business" air of authority._ If the component or board is not found onboard the Axiom, the initial search will continue outside towards WALL•E 1's truck, bearing 195 degrees True, distance 2.35 kilometres, along a pathway 50 metres wide. Once outside, probe any loose ground to a depth of 10 centimetres as necessary._

_I will search the truck myself, _she added. EVE didn't want her sister probes tearing their truck apart, or carelessly tossing WALL•E's possessions around as they relentlessly pursued their directive to the exclusion of all else.

EVE paused, and then out of a sense of caution, continued._ Finally, __**do not**__ target or fire on any being or object, moving or not. Disable ion cannons and targeting sensors now. Further, work __**around**__ other robots and humans. __**Do not**__ push them aside. Return to any missed search areas after robots or humans have moved on. Cover every square or cubic millimetre of the specified search targets and area. Report any positive findings here to Typing-bot. He is now your Axiom superior. Understood?_

_Affirmative,_ the probes beeped together.

EVE thought she'd test them to see if any of them might indeed have her kind of independent or inquisitive nature.

_Any questions? _she asked them.

EVE got no response, unfortunately largely confirming her assessment of them.

Reluctantly, she knew her old self well enough to know that such specific instructions were necessary, especially as the other EVEs would now be working among other robots, as well as humans. Looking again at their minimally-responsive reactions, she was pretty sure they still lacked social protocols — which she had managed to develop as a result of her interactions with both of her WALL•Es, as well as with other robots and humans — and she didn't want any unfortunate misunderstandings.

EVE then reasoned that her friends and others mistaking one of these probes for her could be a problem as well. But fortunately, she just happened to spot VN-GO wandering through the Lido Deck.

_VN-GO,_ EVE called to him in _Axiom_.

He heard and came over.

_Could you please apply numbers on these probes . . . 2 through 5, starting with that one,_ she beeped at him, pointing to the first probe towards her left _. . . in blue _(it went with their eye forms she reasoned)_ . . . neatly!_

The probes remained waiting in a line for clearance to proceed, while VN-GO carefully painted the numbers on each of their fronts, just off center to the right and up. While doing it neatly, as EVE had requested, that didn't stop VN-GO from adding a stylistic flourish or two!

_There,_ EVE thought to herself with satisfaction. _Now they won't be confused with me, and no one will get hurt . . . emotionally, or physically! _EVE knew herself, and her type, too well.

The other EVE probes didn't care, they just finally had a new directive to fulfill, a purpose again.

_Proceed,_ she then ordered.

The four probes departed Typing-bot's lobby, as the Holo-Detector rose out of the plaza in front of them. Two of the probes began to swarm and scan around the detector, while the two others departed to access the storage silo underneath it.

As WALL•E and EVE passed the rising Detector, WALL•E paid it almost no heed. EVE though stopped as she looked at it.

With chills, she now replayed the whole incident in her consciousness. She was now near the very spot where WALL•E was crushed by the Detector. They had passed it a number of times on their way to and from Typing-bot before, but this was the first time EVE saw the Detector raised again since it had crushed WALL•E.

"WALL•E-E-E!! . . ." she suddenly found herself uncontrollably sobbing.

"Eee-vaah?" WALL•E responded as he took her hand in both of his now with concern, wondering what was wrong.

"Old WALL•E-E-E . . . d-die . . . h-here . . ." EVE sobbed, still staring at the spot where it all happened.

The new WALL•E now gazed at the spot on the Holo-Detector where EVE had just told him that his old self had died. He didn't comprehend it in full, but he now knew that a terrible thing had happened here to this other WALL•E that EVE cared about.

Typing-bot observed all this, and called out to EVE. _Perhaps it would be good for him to understand what happened, and for you to revisit it, with his support. You need to heal, and he should know._

EVE turned back as the other EVE probes continued their work, and returned with WALL•E to Typing-bot. A holoscreen now emerged next to Typing-bot, and replayed the incident.

WALL•E remained silently transfixed, watching the cube he knew he now lived within get crushed by the Holo-Detector on the screen. EVE had a fin gripping WALL•E tightly as she sobbed quietly, staring at the horrific images of what had happened to her beloved, refusing to look away out of a sense of devotion to his memory. Together, they saw her rushing to free him from the Holo-Detector all over again, and finally carrying his crushed form, zooming out of view once the _Axiom_ had landed on Earth.

The screen then changed to a view of the Engineering Lab.

_WALL•E deserves to see how he came to be,_ Typing-bot explained.

WALL•E and EVE then saw vignettes of her scanning WALL•Es 1 and 2 on the Lab table, and having the new Type 17 Processor installed in WALL•E.

"You . . . aware . . . here . . ." EVE said pointing at the screen for WALL•E, noting the point where his present consciousness came online.

They saw some more highlights. WALL•E started to say, "Yess," in recognition of scenes he could remember experiencing in the Lab.

Then the screen faded to black and vanished.

Typing-bot knew he was taking a risk in having WALL•E and EVE view these images. But he knew they both might have some difficult choices to make soon, and he wanted to give them a common body of awareness and history to draw a shared understanding from, as well as hopefully a shared sense of purpose.

WALL•E turned to face EVE, as she looked at him, recovering somewhat from her sadness. He moved to embrace her, and she returned his embrace, closing her eye forms for a moment. Neither of them said a word.

Typing-bot looked down at his keyboard, trying to allow them some privacy.

WALL•E and EVE emerged from their embrace, and she led him over to Typing-bot.

"Thank you," EVE said, still sniffling slightly, to Typing-bot in English, so WALL•E could understand.

WALL•E looked down for a moment, and then added his own, "Thannk youu," as well.

_I only want both of you to be strong, together — whatever is to come,_ Typing-bot said, both through _Axiom_ beeps, and through English words on his holoscreen, so WALL•E could understand.

EVE led WALL•E into a shared embrace with Typing-bot. Only then was Typing-bot sure he had done a good thing.


	15. Chapter 15

EVE and WALL•E left Typing-bot's lobby aboard their transport.

As soon as they were out on the plaza though, WALL•E called out, "Stop!" as they passed the Holo-Detector. The transport, and their accompanying Steward-bots stopped.

He turned on the transport to face and look at the Holo-Detector one more time, as he held EVE's hand. For the first time, WALL•E now was experiencing conflicted, sobering emotions himself. He still didn't have the language to begin to describe them, but he was feeling them. If what happened here had not happened, the current WALL•E began to realize he would not exist. Yet because he did exist, he knew EVE's consciousness was divided, conflicted. He had just seen her pain for the first time in losing his previous self. Seeing the images of that incident had indeed now broadened his understanding of EVE, and his compassion for her. He appreciated how he would feel if he saw EVE hurt like that.

WALL•E came to feel that even he now owed something to his previous self. He took EVE's hand in both of his as he looked at her. EVE looked back at him now, placing her other hand on top of his.

"Togetherr . . . right," he simply said to her, as he looked at both her and the Holo-Detector. He wanted to make all this feel right, together with her. WALL•E didn't know what that would be, but to him, this now became his directive.

"Dirrective," he said, as he pointed to himself, to her, and to the Holo-Detector.

EVE was moved beyond words. All she could do was to tearfully embrace WALL•E, whispering "Thank you . . ." as she did.

Grateful as she was, EVE could not shake off a sense of unease that was growing within her about the path there were now embarking on together. All her reference data and preliminary analyses were now starting to tell her that two systems, two consciousnesses, had never been safely merged together. One had always been erased, or dismantled and assimilated in pieces, in favor of the other. But as long as her WALL•E was more than one consciousness, her world would continue to be divided.

— — — — —

EVE and WALL•E proceeded home on their transport, facing each other now, and still holding hands. Their bond was growing, cementing between them. Neither could help it anymore.

EVE was more than content though to let the other EVE probes search all the other possible locations for the circuit board, as her own preliminary analyses were informing her that the truck had the highest probabilities for being the location where the board might be found. But yet she was still conflicted about actually finding the circuit board. Her analyses so far of possible scenarios regarding WALL•E's two systems now gave her increasing fears of losing either or both of them.

So, arriving back at their truck, EVE decided to search lower probability areas around the truck's exterior first, almost to buy time to try and come up with better possible outcomes for WALL•E's past and present selves.

"Eee-vaah begin search . . . for board . . . around truck," she suggested.

"Searrch," WALL•E agreed, clearly wanting to help. But EVE realized all he could do would be to scan visually, while her scans were much more thorough. Still, it was a sunny afternoon, and she thought they might as well allow him to help in the search.

"Come," she said, taking WALL•E by the hand inside the truck.

_Display Type 17 Processor and board believed missing from WALL•E 1_, she instructed the console as they approached it.

"Look for this," she said to him, showing him an image of the hypothetical circuit board, both enlarged and actual size, on the holoscreen of her computer console.

They then moved back outside to begin their search. "Together . . . or separate?" she then asked him as they stopped for a moment on the truck's ramp.

"Togetherr!" WALL•E happily decided.

So they began scanning the ground around the truck together, hand-in-hand.

Starting their search counter-clockwise around the truck from the ramp — WALL•E's optics moved back and forth as they focused in on a few square decimetres of ground at a time, while EVE's blue scanning rays swept back and forth over the same ground. Over time, they also raised and carefully searched under the truck's ramp, and among its wheels.

EVE decided she enjoyed working with WALL•E — pursuing a shared activity, fulfilling a common sense of purpose, together. It filled her in an indescribable way that searching for plant life on her own never had. It was a satisfying end in itself. For his part, the current WALL•E had nothing else to compare it with. But he too desired simply to work, and just be, with EVE.

— — — — —

It was late in the day when M-O and some of their other friends happened by. EVE and WALL•E had just completed their search around the outside of the truck, and as EVE had inwardly expected, they found nothing.

Still, EVE found searching to be a good time of bonding with WALL•E. So she thought why not make searching the inside of the truck a group activity with their friends, especially as there would be lots of things to lift and move around during the search.

_Invite everyone! Let's search together for the board inside this truck,_ EVE told M-O, who happily went to EVE's console, interfaced with it, and proceeded to send messages to their other robot friends and come and share in the search.

Soon more robots were there than could comfortably work inside the truck — but no one minded. Pieces of WALL•E's collections started to be carefully passed from robot to robot and temporarily stored either outside, or in the "garage" the Steward-bots had been inhabiting beside the truck. EVE employed the Steward-bots to lift up the truck's deck plates with their force field beams, as she searched underneath each one. As before though, nothing resembling the component they were looking for had been found so far. But everyone seemed to be having a good time, enjoying a sense of shared purpose.

EVE came to have her hands full coordinating everyone's search efforts though, hovering here and there among the other robots. Periodically, she would find herself separated from WALL•E, who became preoccupied at times acquainting himself with his predecessor's collections . . . going "Oooo" and "Aaah" over each new piece that he encountered. EVE made sure to reunite with WALL•E though every now and then, giving him a warm hug when she'd find him, along with a spark-kiss, too, with WALL•E happily warbling each time!

Collectively, they had searched through most of the truck and its shelves when WALL•E's Storm Sensor went off, alerting that a sand storm was approaching. He hadn't yet learned what it was, but EVE knew.

_Storm approaching! Clean up and secure!_ she alerted everyone through a rapid series of beeps. EVE became distressed however when she looked at the rapidly approaching storm and realized that most of the other robots wouldn't make it to shelter elsewhere in time.

_Everyone inside!_ she commanded. EVE directed the Steward-bots to lift up some of the truck's floor plates again and toss them outside to make room for more robots in the underfloor spaces. Robots that could be stacked on top of each other were. EVE herself placed a number of the smaller robots on the some of the shelves.

Almost every robot was inside the truck now . . . but not quite.

"Outside?" WALL•E said to EVE as the winds approached, pointing down the truck's ramp and offering to remain outside, calculating he could cube up and protect himself somewhat better than the other robots could.

"No!" EVE responded at first. But then she looked behind her. A shock of cold dread came over EVE as she saw that every space that could be filled inside the truck had been. They were out of time.

Before any other robot could respond or volunteer in their place, EVE picked WALL•E up and flew off the ramp to where the truck's external door control lever was. Picking up on her cue, WALL•E reached out and pulled the lever, closing the truck's door.

"No! . . ." they heard M-O protest, just as the truck's door closed.

WALL•E and EVE now looked at each other as they hovered in front of the truck. "Togetherr . . ." he said to her, as the sand and winds hit them with full force.

Bumping backwards along the side of a truck she could not longer see, right through where the Steward-bots' shelter should have been; EVE struggled to fly them on in search of other shelter around the truck as WALL•E cubed up. Upon reaching the front of the truck, she discovered that it offered some protection from the full force of the sand-blasting winds. EVE remembered she had survived a sand storm when the original WALL•E took her home to his truck the first time. But she could feel WALL•E's cube jittering now. He could not remember enduring one of these storms before.

EVE settled the two of them as best she could under the truck's angled cab. The winds and sand were beating upon them much worse than in the previous storm EVE remembered sharing with WALL•E. She had to maintain thrust just to stay in place, as she was buffeted by strong winds coming around the sides and top of the truck. Blowing sands were also starting to bury WALL•E. She kept having to brush the growing sand piles off of and away from him.

She could just hear him yell above the winds' howl. "Eee-vaah . . . talk!" he was saying. She saw him extend a hand to reach out for her.

"No!" she yelled back, pushing his hand back into his cube. EVE didn't want sand getting into WALL•E's insides. She extended both her fins round him again and held him tighter.

"Eee-vaah, talk!" WALL•E yelled a second time.

"Okay . . . WALL•E!" she yelled back in reply, almost laughing. EVE realized he just wanted to hear the comforting sound of her voice amid the winds.

Continuing to hold him tightly, EVE started to cycle through some of the English words she knew and had been learning. "You . . ." she began yelling, ". . . Quest . . . Celebrity . . . Day . . . Directive . . . Home . . . Ready . . ."

EVE began remembering the commands she had to use with WALL•E before he became self-aware . . . "Watch . . . Stay . . . Follow . . . Open . . . Gentle . . . Hand . . . Close . . . Lab . . . Break . . . Dormancy . . . Sleep . . . Recharge . . ."

EVE decided to keep using positive words to help lift WALL•E's spirits, as well as her own, even if she had to repeat them . . . "Hope . . . Sun . . . Ball . . . Stars . . ."

Suddenly, EVE became moved at the next words she thought of . . . "Choose . . . Commitment . . . Love . . ."

_Why not string words together that really mean something for both of us,_ she thought, her eye forms starting to smile despite the storm raging around both her and WALL•E.

"WALL•E . . ." she said loudly, moving even closer so he could hear better, ". . . Eee-vaah . . . Choose . . . Commitment . . . Love . . . WALL•E . . ."

Those words felt very good together for EVE!

"Eee-vaah . . . Choose . . . WALL•E!"

"Eee-vaah . . . Love . . . WALL•E!"

EVE found herself deeply moved by that combination of words.

"Eee-vaah . . . Love . . . WALL•E!" she repeated.

"Eee-vaah!" she heard back . . . it was special to him, too!

"WALL•E . . . Love . . . Eee-vaah!" he yelled back.

"Eee-vaah . . . Love . . . WALL•E!" . . . "WALL•E . . . Love . . . Eee-vaah!" they began trading back and forth, yelling to each other in the howling winds and sand as she continued to hold him tightly. All of a sudden they were enjoying themselves out in the storm!

"Eee-vaah . . . Love . . . WALL•E!" . . . "WALL•E . . . Love . . . Eee-vaah!"

They kept on exchanging those words. They no longer cared that the sand was covering them up. EVE began to allow it actually, because she realized it was beginning to provide them with some protection from the abrasive, sand-blasting winds. As the sands buried them, EVE positioned herself so that her speaker was near WALL•E's audio sensors, and so that her audio sensor was close enough to hear his speaker as well.

Soon they were completely covered by sand. They couldn't really even hear the winds howl anymore. While they couldn't see each other, they could still feel and hear one another. EVE turned off her optical systems, as there was nothing but sand in front of them now. But she still enjoyed her embrace of WALL•E's form beneath the sands, as well as hearing his voice. EVE now always wanted to hear that voice of his.

Finally, they were protected from the harsh storm outside, and in a world all their own.

"Eee-vaah . . . Love . . . WALL•E!" . . . "WALL•E . . . Love . . . Eee-vaah!" they kept saying to each other back and forth, almost in glee!

— — — — —

Near dawn, the storm finally subsided. M-O emerged from the truck leading some of the rest of the robots on a search for WALL•E and EVE.

They first looked for the Steward-bots' shelter at the side of the truck, but to their dismay, it had been completely blown away. With growing apprehension, the search party cautiously continued towards the front of the truck, checking the piles of sand among its wheels. When they reached the front of the truck, they began to hear muffled talking coming from a large pile of sand that had built up against its cab. V-QM moved to one side of the cab's front and began to blow at the pile of sand, as HAN-S dug away into the pile from the other side.

The sounds were becoming clearer as they dug . . . "Eee-vaah . . . Love . . . WALL•E" . . . "WALL•E . . . Love . . . Eee-vaah" . . .

Finally, a black and yellow cube edge with a white fin on top of it began to appear as V-QM cleared the sand away from his side. EVE sensed the weight of the sand diminish on top of her right fin. She proceeded to first reach outwards, her fingers finally feeling free to move and detecting no more wind-blown sand beating against them. Then she pushed herself up, her head and upper body finally emerging from the sand as it fell away.

"Oooo," she said as she shook the sand off her head, realizing that the storm was finally over. She had just become totally preoccupied sharing her now special words with WALL•E.

_EVE!_ everyone in the search party beeped.

EVE looked around, and then reached back down as she worked to dig both herself and WALL•E out.

She heard a muffled, "Eee-vaah?" coming from beneath the sand.

For his part, WALL•E was wondering why their word game had stopped . . . it was now her turn to once again declare her affection for him!

Finally his cube began to be exposed. Feeling EVE's fins almost tapping on him now as she cleared the sand away from the top of his cube with V-QM's help, and hearing her gently say, "WALL•E" — his optics and arms emerged, and he quickly looked around for EVE.

"Eee-vaah!" he exclaimed when he finally saw her, reaching his arms behind him to embrace her. He didn't care if his back was towards her at the moment.

"WALL•E!" she exclaimed again, embracing him as well, even though they were both still half-buried in sand.

Other robots, as well as humans, began gathering around them, the closest among them continuing to help dig EVE and WALL•E out. Word had already been spreading during the night how WALL•E and EVE had protected their friends and chosen to remain outside to face the storm, together.

WALL•E and EVE were once again "Celebrities" as EVE was learning . . . even heroes.

But all that mattered to them were the words they now they were now finally able to say face to face as they looked at each other . . .

"Eee-vaah . . . Love . . . WALL•E" . . . "WALL•E . . . Love . . . Eee-vaah" . . .

They held each other tightly as everyone around them cheered.


	16. Chapter 16

Finally out of the sand, and fresh from a good cleaning courtesy of M-O and V-QM, EVE and WALL•E returned amid the crowd of robots and humans around them to the back of their truck. They could now see that the confusion of the storm, and the crowding of robots inside it, had left the truck's interior a mess. Also, much of the original WALL•E's collections were no longer on the truck's shelves.

EVE looked around the interior sadly, feeling bad that much of the Old WALL•E's treasures had been damaged or had disappeared. The new WALL•E for his part though had no memories of collecting his treasures, or about his previous life in the truck. All he cared about was that EVE was with him, and he sighed with contentment as he continued to hold an arm around her.

M-O looked at WALL•E and EVE, and realized they had done enough just by enduring the storm for everyone else, while he and the others had remained safely inside the truck.

"Cl-e-e-e-a-n-n up-p-p!!" he ordered everyone else, as he then gently pushed WALL•E and EVE back outside the truck.

"Re-re-re-lax!" he told them, as BRL-A spread her umbrella over WALL•E and EVE to shade them from the morning sun. EVE looked at WALL•E with smiling eyes, as she shrugged and giggled at the situation, and warmly embraced and leaned against him as together they watched the other robots swing into action to clean up and organize their truck home. WALL•E's Low Charge alarm of course went off however, so they encouraged BRL-A to relax as well, as WALL•E opened up his solar panels and recharged, while EVE continued to hold him from behind.

Even though they had endured a harrowing storm and their truck home had been trashed; WALL•E and EVE were feeling wonderful, just being together.

M-O, V-QM and other cleaning bots first cleaned the sand out of the truck's interior to a point where it became much cleaner than it had been before. The Steward-bots then replaced the floor plates inside, now sandblasted clean of rust by their exposure to the storm overnight. BURN•E and some construction-bots had even found some steel plates lying around, and at last the hole EVE had once blasted in the truck's roof out of necessity was now patched. Finally, other robots re-erected WALL•E's solar cell power system on the truck, and replaced as many of WALL•E's treasures as had been either saved inside, or as they could find and salvage outside. M-O somehow remembered where most everything had been, and directed the others in putting WALL•E's surviving treasures back in the places they had once occupied.

Captain McCrea even came by, and led some humans in trying to put some of the plants around the truck that he had been finding and gathering lately. Digging into the concrete the truck was resting on however, proved to be a bit of a problem. So the Captain pledged they would be back, once he had found some boots to keep the plants in!

"There must be a way to keep them from being blown away in storms though . . ." he puzzled to himself as he left.

Before long, the truck was almost as good as new. Everything that could be found was back in its place, and WALL•E and EVE's home was once again ready for occupancy . . . all in a matter of hours.

Everyone gathered around as EVE and WALL•E made their way up the truck's ramp to look inside their much refurbished home. EVE was deeply touched by everyone's gesture and work. WALL•E just marveled at all the interesting treasures he had yet to become acquainted with.

Together, EVE and WALL•E heard sounds, and saw a flickering light coming from the far end of the truck's interior. Music that had become fairly familiar to EVE played. To her delight, EVE realized that WALL•E's once-treasured "Hello Dolly" tape had remained inside the truck through the storm, and that the other robots had set up its player once again, just where it had been. She and WALL•E were going to enjoy that tape together tonight, EVE decided.

After they looked around some more, they returned to the truck's ramp. "Thank you," said EVE. "Thannk youu," echoed WALL•E, as they looked with gratitude at everyone gathered around them.

"Do something . . . for you," EVE offered to the others, feeling that she and WALL•E now owed the rest of them something for all they'd done.

"No, no, darling," PR-T replied. "You saved us! That's quite enough!"

EVE was surprised at herself though for having just defaulted to speaking in English to the other robots, instead of _Axiom_. EVE looked warmly at WALL•E next to her, realizing that he had more than merely rubbed off on her now. They were intertwined . . . two halves of one marvelous and larger whole.

It had been a long night and day, and everyone was ready for a rest, and in some cases, a recharge.

After bidding good night to everyone, EVE and WALL•E turned to go inside the truck. WALL•E faced the inside lever that closed the truck's door, but then paused, lifting up his arms and looking at EVE.

"Help?" he asked her, although even he knew he didn't need it.

Picking up on his cue this time, EVE's eye forms knowingly smiled as she moved closer and picked him up. Only then did he reach out and pull the lever, closing the truck's door.

Having done that, they sighed together in contentment, causing EVE to giggle and hug him tightly.

EVE loved this WALL•E now, and reveled in it. Looking around the now cleaned and reorganized truck, she suddenly experienced mixed feelings however. She began to realize that with all the confusion and cleaning that had occurred inside the truck over the last 24 hours, any hope of finding the circuit board in there was now likely lost. And with such a severe sand storm, EVE now computed that the probabilities for finding it anywhere outside either the truck or the _Axiom_ were now also essentially zero.

EVE leaned her head down onto his optics as she continued to embrace him. She closed her eyes, not so much in pain now, as in thought. Thought of what had happened to her and the new WALL•E over just the last two days, how they had changed together, grown towards each other. How she had changed in ways towards the new WALL•E she never thought she would have.

_Maybe Typing-bot is right, _she thought. _Maybe I do have the best part of WALL•E with me . . . here, in my arms._

EVE felt sad, but now peaceful, as WALL•E just watched "Hello Dolly" playing ahead of him . . . for the first time. Staring blankly over the top of his optics, EVE processed probabilities, computed scenarios, and weighed alternatives. Was it time to rest from her striving now, from her quest . . . even end it, she asked herself. Had she done enough . . . done all she could to recover the original WALL•E?

_. . . What would my original WALL•E have done in my place?_ she wondered. EVE then closed her eye forms, almost wincing in painful recognition, as she answered her own question. She knew what he would do . . . he would never give up, no matter what. That was his way. EVE glanced down at WALL•E's optics below her, realizing that this WALL•E was a lot like that as well. Both her WALL•Es were simple, but determined. She could see that they would just not give up.

Reviewing her memories of the original WALL•E, EVE realized that somehow he was able to calmly pace himself, to maintain an unswerving conviction, even faith, no matter what he confronted. EVE realized she hadn't been able to do that, however. She began to experience shame at her own weaknesses compared to him — at her up and down bouts with both elation and despair . . . alternately soaring at times with joy, and then almost utterly defeated by frustration. That, she realized, unfortunately had been her way.

EVE was no longer so sure she could do what she believed the original WALL•E could, however. She wanted peace, rest from struggle and anguish, and deep love. She had that now, all of it . . . right between her fins, in the new WALL•E.

At the same time, EVE realized WALL•E could be very self-sacrificing. He could have easily gotten out of the way and let that Holo-Detector retract, but he didn't.

_Why? _EVE asked her original WALL•E inside herself. _Why did you have to sacrifice yourself then? There were other alternatives, other ways to accomplish our directive. Are you sacrificing yourself again now . . . for me . . . by making it essentially impossible for me to recover you? By making it impossible for me not to completely love this new WALL•E?_

EVE buried her visor against the back of WALL•E's optics. She cried silently, not wanting to disturb or concern the new WALL•E — not wanting to have to explain her thoughts to him at the moment.

Suddenly, EVE's console beeped with an incoming comm link. She broke away from her embrace with WALL•E, and hovered over to it. WALL•E looked on with curiosity as EVE accessed the console. Typing-bot's image appeared.

_I . . . wanted to inform you myself,_ he began, even slower than usual. _The EVE probes have completed their initial search of the Axiom as you specified . . . and have not found any indication of the circuit board._

_Given the severity of the storm, I would not expect that we could find it outside the Axiom now either, nor likely even intact if we did, _she beeped to him, with a degree of detachment and rationality that surprised even EVE herself.

_We could continue . . . for centuries even . . . if you like, _Typing-bot responded. _But the choice is yours . . ._

_I support you, whatever you decide, _Typing-bot concluded, knowing she would need to hear that from him now. _Contact or visit me at any time if you need to communicate._

_Thank you, _EVE beeped to him in reply as she ended the comm link.

A conclusion began to emerge in EVE's consciousness now, backed up with almost overwhelming amounts of virtually irrefutable logic.

"Circuit board . . . hopeless," she said softly as she returned to her embrace behind WALL•E, and looked over the top of his optics as they resumed watching the movie together.

"Old WALL•E . . . gone," she continued. EVE couldn't help it, she began to softly cry aloud now, as she once again buried her eye forms against his optics.

"Eee-vaah," WALL•E said gently, with understanding and concern, as he turned himself around to take EVE into his embrace.

Now EVE began to hear the strains of what had been the old WALL•E's favorite song, "It Only Takes a Moment" — this deeply saddened her.

_You taught me to love you with this,_ EVE thought in her consciousness to her original WALL•E, as she held the new.

"Important . . . to Old WALL•E . . ." she sadly said to the new WALL•E, now pointing to the song playing on the screen.

Together, EVE and WALL•E watched the song, the two new lovers holding hands and singing warmly to each other — as WALL•E and EVE also now moved and faced their forms towards each other, holding hands. The memories, and the symbolism of what they were doing, were all too much for EVE though. She moved to embrace WALL•E now and cry in his arms.

"Trust . . ." WALL•E said to EVE, remembering that this usually encouraged her.

"Old WALL•E gone . . . impossible now," EVE said sadly, no longer seeing really any reason to maintain hope that his previous self could be recovered. Besides, EVE had never been able to conceive of any safe and reasonable way of bringing the two WALL•Es together.

_Maybe it is better this way,_ EVE thought tearfully to herself. _I deeply love you as you are, and you are so much like the original WALL•E now. I was wrong to scare you, wrong to cause you to ever doubt that I would want you, _she continued to think as she looked down at the current WALL•E.

"Eee-vaah . . . directive . . ." WALL•E said to her, pointing to himself, her, and the screen in turn, reminding her of the directive he had made towards himself, her, and the original WALL•E next to the Holo-Detector.

WALL•E had made his own promise now, and he wanted to keep it.

Deeply moved and gratified as she was by WALL•E's gesture, EVE shook her head.

"No . . . must let go . . . Old WALL•E . . . grieve," she said with sadness. EVE had made her choice.

_Access Commitment, prepare to amend . . ._ she sadly but deliberately began instructing her systems. EVE now wanted peace, finality, with the WALL•E she had. She wanted an end to her often painful quest, and live a peaceful life with a WALL•E whom she could easily love completely now. Part of herself was ashamed at being prepared to let go of the Old WALL•E though — the wonderful, loving being who had induced her to take this journey in the first place.

_Please understand . . . please forgive me . . ._ she asked the original WALL•E in her consciousness. _I know I may be wrong, but I cannot see a way forward to reach you from where I now am. I cannot do any more, go any further for you. I have done the best I am capable of. My consciousness cannot take any more conflict, division, or pain. Please let me go, too. Let us each find peace._

EVE was about to proceed with deleting her memories of the old WALL•E, including her once-treasured security images of him. But she couldn't do that to him, or to herself. _Compress and archive records of Original WALL•E in Inactive Data Storage,_ she reluctantly instructed her systems instead, still feeling a deep sense of shame.

The new WALL•E for his part disagreed with the course of action he could perceive EVE was now taking. But his chief directive was to make EVE happy, and he recognized that disagreeing with her about this was not making her happy.

"Not right . . ." he said softly out loud though, more to himself than to EVE.

"WALL•E . . . help," EVE said to him in sad irritation. This choice was already hard enough for her as it was, even though EVE by now had grown somewhat used to experiencing choices that were hard for her to pursue or execute. It only hurt her more though to have him disagree with her, especially on this decision.

With a reluctant sigh, WALL•E embraced EVE more closely and looked off into the distance among the shelves of his past self's treasures. The old WALL•E was in fact all around them, this new WALL•E began to realize.

Then he saw something that drew his interest on one of the shelves. It was a small faded green toy dinosaur. WALL•E could not recall having seen this treasure before. But there was something unusual about it. There was something in its teeth . . . a small electronic board . . . with a chip on it.

"Eee-vaah . . ." WALL•E said, as he let go of her, and moved around her, feeling almost compelled to see what this little green dinosaur had in its mouth.

EVE turned in confusion. _What could he possibly be interested in now?_ she wondered with some consternation, when she was trying to focus on completing a set of internal tasks that were very hard for her . . . tasks that would free her to be his now, totally.

"Eee-vaah," WALL•E said again, as he gently picked up the small dinosaur off the shelf, and gingerly removed the small electronic board that was in its mouth. He looked at the board, and then turned to show it to EVE.

EVE looked at what WALL•E held up to her. Her systems isolated and imaged it, and began comparing it with references. Her optical scanners zeroed in on the chip, and read its faded markings . . .

_BNL  
Type 17  
Memory and Reasoning  
Processor_

EVE experienced a cold shock.

They had found . . . the new WALL•E had found . . . the original WALL•E's missing essence.

As she very gently and reverently took the tiny board from WALL•E, and held it as she continued to look at it in disbelief — EVE wondered how it could have gotten there, how it could have survived all the tumult and cleaning inside the truck over the last 24 hours . . . and how it had gotten wedged into the mouth of a toy dinosaur.

. . . But the little green toy dinosaur, having had a good view of EVE's computer console from his perch on a shelf for a while now, wasn't about to tell.

_

* * *

An additional acknowledgement is of course due at the end of this chapter, thanking Pixar for creating and owning the character of a certain little green toy dinosaur who has lived in WALL•E's truck for some time, even in the movie!_

_For those of you on your own romantic quests (as I am), may True Love turn up for you as well, in ways either expected . . . or surprising. And may those of you who have it already, treasure it anew._

_Happy Valentines Day everyone._

— _Norwesterner_


	17. Chapter 17

_Sorry for another lengthy delay, everyone. But for the first time, I went through an unprecedented three partial drafts and re-writes before I developed what felt like would be the right tone for this chapter! I knew where I wanted to go, but how EVE and WALL•E react to and deal with what they've found was the challenge here._

_The shared moment of discovery, and the story, continues . . ._

* * *

EVE felt wonderful . . . and terrible . . . at the same time.

The new WALL•E had just found the old WALL•E's missing circuit board — the key to bringing him back. EVE had hoped, worked, and striven for this moment so hard. It was a victory that would have been the highpoint of her existence just even a day ago.

Yet, she had also given up on this moment ever happening a mere three minutes ago. For a tiny span of time, she had allowed herself to abandon hope for the old WALL•E, to give up on him and getting him back. First she had hurt the new WALL•E a couple of days ago. Now EVE felt she had also just hurt the old WALL•E as well. She winced her eye forms in shame.

_I'm sorry I doubted, even gave up . . . I am so sorry . . ._ EVE thought painfully to the old WALL•E whom she now fully restored to her active systems and memory, as she looked again at his precious board she held in her hand. Joy and self-condemnation swirled around within her consciousness, both emanating from her Commitment, but negative emotions were beginning to dominate.

EVE turned and looked at the new WALL•E, her eye forms betraying a now growing guilt and sadness within her.

"Lost . . . trust . . ." she said sadly to him, phrasing her loss of faith in terms she knew WALL•E would best understand. More than ever now, EVE wanted his simple faith, and his help in battling her inner turmoil and self-condemnation.

Gently taking hold of the circuit board along with her, WALL•E matter-of-factly responded, "Found boarrd . . . found trrust!" as he reassuringly put his other arm around her.

EVE once again discovered herself in awe of his unintended but profound insight.

"You help me, WALL•E . . . thank you," she said to him, grateful for the relief and peace his simple words were now bringing to her.

"WALL•E . . . help . . . always," he responded while briefly looking at her and then returning his gaze to the circuit board. To him, helping EVE was just a logical given, a basic part of his primary directive.

EVE let WALL•E continue to hold the board while she moved to embrace him with both fins and bury her visor against the side of his optics. She realized WALL•E was now her anchor, her source of stability, and her refuge against even herself. She no longer knew what she would do without him as he had become, and didn't even want to contemplate such a possibility.

EVE pivoted her visor while she continued to rest her head against WALL•E's optics and hold him with both her fins. She joined him in looking at the board. They looked at it together for a time.

"Miracle . . ." she said, feeling almost immobilized by her conflicted but now calmer feelings. EVE still didn't have an answer for how the Old WALL•E could return without hurting or displacing the new. She was committed to not hurt either one, but to save them both. From where she was right now though, EVE just could not see or assess how that could be done.

While that would have served to greatly frustrate her if she was alone or on her own, EVE allowed WALL•E's presence to continue soothing and calming her as she began to appreciate a new awareness of the power, and benefits, of abiding love. She just focused on WALL•E, on his simplicity and peace. This was becoming more than just another of her emotional energy transfers. She was drawing her awareness of him more deeply into her consciousness, seemingly allowing his peace and simplicity to further spread throughout her systems.

Almost lulled into peaceful sleep against him, EVE quietly asked WALL•E a question that nonetheless nagged at her, "What next?"

WALL•E couldn't give a response. He didn't know either. Recalling his directive, his promise to the old WALL•E to make things right, and knowing he was in his predecessor's place, even in his very form; the new WALL•E began to wonder if it would be better for both EVE and his old self if his new consciousness was out of the way, not here. But that didn't feel right to WALL•E. He just didn't know what did, or what would be right.

Each of them now gave an understanding and supportive squeeze to the other. That at least helped them feel better. Even without words, both WALL•E and EVE could now perceive and comprehend what the other was feeling inwardly. Their developing love subroutines, directives, and body of shared experience were harmonizing them — starting to allow EVE and WALL•E to experience a wordless, almost ethereal synchronicity and understanding together. They each now had a concept, an idea of what they were facing.

"Slee-eep," WALL•E softly suggested to EVE. They had done and experienced enough for one day. The challenges ahead could wait for tomorrow, he reasoned . . . maybe answers would be there, too. He gently placed the circuit board on the shelf, right next to the little green dinosaur. It just seemed a safe and logical place for the board to him. Somehow WALL•E sensed the dinosaur would watch over it.

Moving across the truck to his own shelf, WALL•E turned around to face EVE and once again raised his arms as he looked at her. EVE gently lifted him into the space where he slept as he began to cube up. As he settled into his own shelf space, WALL•E began to feel bad that EVE would be sleeping hovering out on the open floor yet again. Then he noticed that the shelf spaces next to him were practically empty, largely devoid of the now lost treasures they once held. Without saying a word, he rotated himself sideways and started to remove several of the shelf partitions as he slowly scooted along on his mostly-retracted treads, while also gently pushing the few treasures near him further down the shelf, placing the unneeded partitions down with them.

"Huh?" EVE said as she looked on in puzzlement, not knowing what he was doing.

Moving back to his own sleeping spot, WALL•E paused and looked at the space he had cleared. He then looked at EVE, almost sizing her up, before he proceeded to look around the truck's interior — up, down and sideways. Then once again, he looked back at the shelf, as if something was still missing.

Finally he looked at EVE, raised a finger, and declared "Ah-ha!"

In a flash of deductive insight, he turned and delved into the collection of rubber boots gathered in a plastic tub on the other side of his own sleeping spot. He proceeded to artfully arrange several boots into forming an oval lengthwise along the shelf. The toes of four of the boots now faced towards each other at the oval's top and bottom. WALL•E then arranged an additional boot along each side towards one end of the oval on top of the others but angled inwards, with its toe pointing outwards. Together, the boots now almost perfectly outlined EVE's form, but at a slightly smaller scale.

When he had finished, WALL•E gestured from his own spot with an open hand at the space he had now prepared on the shelf for her next to him.

"Slee-eep herre . . ." he offered.

EVE could never recall hovering or laying sideways in a planetary environment in all of her existence before — certainly not to rest. For a moment, she had to compute how to even get into the shelf alongside WALL•E. Then placing a fin on the edge of the shelf for support and guidance, she carefully applied thrust to turn herself up and sideways above the floor. EVE next proceeded to carefully levitate herself into the shelf lengthwise just above the boots with her head oriented towards WALL•E. She faced her visor into the shelf and her eye forms darted around it, allowing her to assess position, clearances, and distance as she slowly moved in. To her, this was now like a complex docking maneuver . . . one she had never done before. WALL•E placed a hand gently on the back of her head as she moved, almost guiding her in. Once she was in place, EVE turned her head and looked up at him, as his semi-retracted optics looked over the edge of his cube at her.

"Eee-vaah," he said warmly to her. EVE giggled in response at the peculiarity of her position and the situation.

"Hoverr off . . . relaxx," he encouraged her, wanting her to truly let go and experience restful sleep as he did in shutting down all his own motors and servos at night. EVE complied, and for the first time in her conscious memory she slowly powered down her thruster units as she detected her form settling down onto the shelf and into the soft, egg-shaped oval WALL•E had crafted for her among the boots. To her surprise, she found that the rubber boots cradled her perfectly. EVE felt incredibly secure, even better than she did in her slot aboard the ARV she used to travel on. She didn't detect herself rolling or moving a single millimetre! She now let herself truly relax and power down in a way she never had before. It was a strange and new, but wonderful, sensation to her.

She reached a fin up towards him. But this time, he gently guided her fin back down to her side and into its recess along her body. WALL•E wanted EVE to totally relax. This was his gift to her.

"Thank you, WALL•E . . . thank youu . . ." EVE softly said as her head automatically retracted to her body, her eye forms closed, and she pleasantly faded off to sleep with surprising ease.

Facing sideways on the shelf at her, WALL•E softly patted and stroked EVE as she went to sleep in the bed he had made for her. He knew they still had big challenges ahead of them. But tonight, he wanted to just give her peace — to comfort, safeguard, and protect her for a change. WALL•E wanted nothing more than for his now sleeping EVE to always be happy and at peace. Even if he still couldn't put it into words, he knew what it was.

He would give everything for EVE to always have this . . . even himself.

_

* * *

. . . There actually is a plastic tub of rubber boots in the movie, right next to where WALL•E sleeps. Even I hadn't noticed it before, and am now ever so grateful to the folks at Pixar for putting it there!_

_May we always be discovering new things in this wonderful, and hopefully timeless film._

_The story of deep love is far from over yet . . ._

— _Norwesterner_


	18. Chapter 18

EVE found herself upright on the floor of the truck. She reasoned her systems must have automatically detected her falling out of her new bed and somehow compensated. She looked around. The truck's door was already open, but the outside was an unusual shade of gray. WALL•E was nowhere to be seen.

"WALL•E?" she called, but there was no response. EVE reasoned that he must be out getting a charge before a storm came.

EVE looked around and spotted the little green toy dinosaur again. Somehow, it had the circuit board back in its mouth.

_WALL•E must have put it there last night,_ she reasoned. She hadn't been looking all that closely when she saw him put the board back there.

EVE hovered over to the toy dinosaur and gently removed the circuit board from its mouth. As she examined it once again, she began to wonder if it was fully functional, if all its data . . . if her original WALL•E . . . was still intact.

She performed an initial scan herself on it.

_Results inconclusive,_ her systems reported to her.

Then she glanced over at her computer console. It had a slot, an interface on it she had never noticed before. It looked like it might be able to accept the circuit board.

EVE hovered over to her console, tapping a button to bring it online and active. She then began to gently insert an end of the circuit board into the slot on the console's panel.

Suddenly, she felt a sharp jolt, a shock. Her systems all flickered for a second and then came back online. But something was different within her. There was something else now inside her.

EVE reached out with her consciousness and probed her systems. She began to detect an emerging presence.

_Identify,_ she commanded both herself, and the presence she was detecting.

_Reason?_ a response came back.

_Identify!_ EVE repeated, more to the response now than to herself.

_Identity irrelevant,_ the response replied. _Your memory files I have seen._

_Identify!_ EVE said once again with increasing concern, even urgency.

_Identity irrelevant! Departing your system,_ the unseen response said.

_WAIT!_ EVE called out. _WALL•E, is that you??_

_Was__ WALL•E, _the response said._ But Eee-vaah give up. Eee-vaah choose another!_

EVE was on the one hand overjoyed, but now at the same time she was desperate for this presence of his to stay and communicate with her.

_WAIT!_ EVE repeated as she detected the presence diminishing, slipping away.

_You choose abandonment!_ EVE heard as she suddenly experienced overwhelming surges of self-condemnation now circling around in her consciousness. EVE started to cry with both pain and shame. Her internal processing slowed to a crawl.

_Focus! . . . Primary system . . . pause and reset!_ EVE commanded herself. Nothing changed. The maelstrom within her continued, even intensifying. EVE began to experience sensations of intense fear, even morbid dread that she was on the verge of termination, of self-destruction.

_Heeellllppp . . . mmmmeeeee . . . !!_ she tried to say both internally and out loud.

_Warning! Cascade failure! System overload . . . overload . . . overload!_ EVE's primary system alarm was saying to her. EVE became unable to focus or do anything as intense, tormenting subroutines of self-condemnation ran rampant and uncontrolled throughout her consciousness now.

EVE gave out one final, desperate scream for help as she felt her consciousness literally flying apart.

_AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!_

— — — — —

" . . . AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!" she now heard herself screaming through her speaker out loud.

Her visual systems came back online, but she saw nothing but dark gray in front of her.

" . . . Eee-vaah!" EVE heard.

Suddenly two metal hands and arms embraced her sides tightly. She looked upwards.

"WALL•E!!" she almost yelled with relief, as her own fins and fingers automatically reached upward to grasp him tightly, almost hanging on for dear life.

"Hellpp Eee-vaah!" she heard him say with concern.

EVE began to twist her head and look around her to get her bearings. She finally relaxed as she realized she was still in her bed, still with WALL•E. She had suffered a nightmare.

_Engage diagnostics. Seek out and repair aberrant dormancy processing subroutine,_ she instructed her systems. Part of her wanted to seek out and destroy the subroutine that had just terrorized her in her sleep!

But EVE allowed herself to once again relax into the secure and even comforting bed of rubber boots that WALL•E had made for her. She relaxed her grip on WALL•E as well into caresses of reassurance and thanks, as she looked up into his partially-emerged optics.

"Eee-vaah okay," she reassured him. "Bad processing . . . bad dream."

"Eee-vaah love WALL•E," she said as a final reassuring sign to him.

"WALL•E love Eee-vaah," he chimed back warmly, as they continued to hold each other in the shelf-bed they now shared, albeit at odd angles to one another.

"Thank you," she said to him, ". . . good bed . . . good sleep!" She reached up to caress one of his optics. EVE didn't want WALL•E to think that the bed he had made for her had caused her nightmare.

For a moment they lingered, looking at and holding each other on the shelf, neither one wanting to get up.

EVE's console now beeped with an incoming comm link. This time she realized, it wasn't a dream. With a resigned sigh and a final caress of WALL•E's optics, giving him a spark-kiss through her fingers, EVE reluctantly withdrew her fins and powered up her thruster units, as WALL•E withdrew his arms from her as well with equal reluctance. Rising slightly off her bed, she then smoothly hovered out of the shelf sideways until she could rotate into a vertical position.

This was going to be a good way to wake up from now on, EVE decided.

"Relax . . . stay," she warmly encouraged WALL•E with friendly eye forms and a raised hand, as she moved over to the console and tapped a flashing button on the panel. A holoscreen emerged with Typing-bot's image on it.

_I wanted to see how you were doing after our conversation last night,_ he said.

_Aside from an aberrant dormancy processing subroutine . . . a nightmare . . . I had a wonderful sleep in a bed of boots that WALL•E made for me,_ she beeped proudly to Typing-bot.

_It is good to hear that he is now taking care of you, _Typing-bot responded with warm appreciation._ This is excellent news of your shared progress that I am sure everyone would like to know of . . . if you do not mind, that is._

EVE smiled inwardly herself now, remembering the news stories and updates that Typing-bot had been disseminating about her and WALL•E.

_No, of course not,_ she responded warmly. _I am proud of the way WALL•E and I take care of each other now, and of what we have together._

EVE found herself reluctant to share their big news with Typing-bot however, and she knew why.

_I . . . We . . . also found the original WALL•E's circuit board last night,_ she beeped with some hesitation _. . . inside the truck . . . the new WALL•E found it._

_Why are you not happy about that?_ Typing-bot observed, getting right to the point.

_I'm afraid,_ EVE found herself confiding, with surprising directness and honesty. _I'm afraid of losing either or both of them if we try to revive the original WALL•E and re-integrate both of them within WALL•E's frame. I have run repeated analyses and scenarios, with no adequately safe or acceptable outcomes._

_I understand well your concerns,_ Typing-bot empathized with her. _Have you shared these with the current WALL•E?_

_No,_ EVE said, looking downward. _We do not have sufficient language capabilities in common to discuss it fully._

_Find a way you must,_ Typing-bot advised. _Use your console, use visual aids. He is sentient now, and must share in this decision with you. He is involved, even more than you are._

_I know, _EVE agreed, still looking down.

WALL•E had again been watching all this from his shelf. He could tell from the first instant he saw EVE's downcast expression that she was troubled. Extending his arm behind him, he was able to reach a yardstick, with which he could in turn reach the control switches for his shelves, and lower himself to the floor. EVE heard this, and knew what he was doing, but chose not to break away from her conversation with Typing-bot, assessing that WALL•E had his own situation well in hand.

This was confirmed when WALL•E moved in beside her, and put a reassuring arm around her, as he too now looked at the holoscreen.

Typing-bot remotely engaged the console's English speech mode, translating his own _Axiom_ beeps so that WALL•E could now be part of their collective conversation.

"Now that you have found the original WALL•E's circuit board, you both have important decisions to make." Typing-bot's translated voice said.

"Yess," WALL•E responded, looking down himself now, trying to indicate to both EVE and Typing-bot through this mannerism that he had also been thinking about the implications the circuit board represented.

If Typing-bot could have taken a deep breath at this point, he would have. He was about to take another risk again, and attempt to bridge the gap in English that EVE couldn't seem to on her own, as well as help WALL•E and EVE towards making a decision that he perceived neither one of them wanted to address, but needed to.

"WALL•E," Typing-bot's translated voice began, "You know that EVE loves you."

EVE's eye forms widened. She now wondered just where Typing-bot was going with this.

"Yess," WALL•E responded.

"She is afraid of losing you," Typing-bot continued, getting right to the heart of the matter. ". . . as we do not know how to safely bring the original WALL•E back, and keep your consciousness within the same frame. It might be possible, but there are serious risks, to both you and the original WALL•E. Do you understand?"

"Yess," said WALL•E, as he detected EVE now embracing him with a fin. He turned his optics and looked at her, not knowing what he could say to reassure her. All he could do was give her a gentle squeeze with his arm.

"Understood," she confirmed to him warmly in response to his squeeze. EVE knew through their shared love now what he was trying to convey to her.

"There are other options. EVE will explain them to you," Typing-bot continued through translation, allowing EVE an opportunity to talk with WALL•E privately about this. "You and she will make your decision together, alright?"

"Yess," WALL•E simply confirmed.

"Very well, I look forward to your decision. Contact me if you need help . . . and take care of each other," Typing-bot concluded as the holoscreen vanished.

EVE and WALL•E found themselves both looking down.

"Didn't want . . . this choice . . . now," she confessed to him, with some sadness in her voice.

WALL•E just looked at her, and gave her another understanding squeeze as he looked back down again.

"Recharge?" EVE said brightly, turning to him and trying to change the subject for the moment . . . just seconds before WALL•E's Low Charge alarm began beeping. She knew WALL•E, almost too well now.

"Yess . . ." WALL•E said, shaking his head with warm amusement, as EVE picked him up. Hovering together, they opened the truck's door in their now accustomed shared manner, and she flew him up to the truck's roof, where he proceeded to open his solar flaps.

EVE knew that their decision would haunt them all day if they tried to postpone it. So she called upon her duty subroutines to help her just get on with the task at hand.

"Excuse me . . . back soon," she said to him as she flew away. While EVE knew what she was going to do, WALL•E didn't. He was confused, but called out, "WALL•E love Eee-vaah!" as she left.

"Eee-vaah love WALL•E!" she responded in kind as she flew away.

Each of them now allowed themselves to experience the sadness and fear they were trying to hide from the other. Yet EVE and WALL•E each now also found themselves curiously drawing strength from the bond of love that still seemed to connect them across the distance that now briefly separated them.

EVE wanted to discuss one option with WALL•E, with visual aids as Typing-bot suggested that she was now on her way to gather. From her perspective, it was a relatively safe one. She realized this alternative would likely have its own drawbacks and challenges — but it was the only one she could come up with that seemed to minimize the risks to both of her WALL•Es, and of losing them.

WALL•E for his part also considered what he wanted to share with EVE . . . about what he had already decided.


	19. Chapter 19

EVE soon returned with the best example among the dead WALL•Es she had previously found, and a spare motherboard. She set down with them on the truck's roof in front of WALL•E. He had just concluded his charge and retracted his solar flaps.

EVE steeled herself and got right to the issue, before she had a chance to lose her resolve in front of him.

"You live . . . here?" she said half suggesting, half asking; looking at WALL•E while pointing to the dead unit where she hoped his new consciousness would agree to live instead.

"Transfer," she added as she opened the unit's CPU access panel and inserted the motherboard to illustrate the transfer process.

"Old WALL•E . . . there," she said pointing at WALL•E, to the frame the new WALL•E was still in.

It would be too difficult, EVE realized, to ensure that all of the old WALL•E's original and now dormant data and code could be successfully moved into another unit, especially without the old WALL•E's conscious participation. She knew from past scans and analyses that it all was spread among too many processors and chips within his frame, many of them quite old. Instead, she concluded it would be far easier to convince WALL•E's new consciousness to agree to move elsewhere, making room for his original essence to re-emerge within his own frame.

. . . And trying to merge the two essences within the same frame? Having run that scenario many times now through her analytical processors and subroutines, EVE perceived it to be so fraught with risk and danger to each of WALL•E's essences — that even under optimal conditions with nothing outwardly going wrong, she no longer wanted to even consider it, let alone suggest it.

With her plan she reasoned, there would be no risk of data loss or mingling through electronic transfer or integration. The new WALL•E would simply concentrate his own data and coding within his Type 17 processor and other memory chips and processors they would agree upon and designate as needed, and then those processors and chips would simply be moved into another refurbished and upgraded WALL•E unit. It was a clean, simple, and almost risk-free procedure.

There would still be the not insignificant issue of living with two WALL•Es however — each of whom she had come to love, but now had different histories with. This, EVE readily recognized, could well cause no end of problems, misunderstandings, even heartaches in the beginning . . . and even possibly for a while to come. But all that she concluded, would still be far better than losing one or both of them outright. Neither WALL•E was merely a disposable robot or system. As Typing-bot had helped to remind her, each was now a sentient, living being whom EVE intended to protect and safeguard in the best ways she could.

EVE felt somewhat bad about what her solution represented however. She realized it wasn't a choice, so much as a compromise — one she was offering perhaps as much or more for her as for either of WALL•E's essences. It was a safe option that perhaps traded a degree of love, maybe even a big degree, for significantly diminished risk of losing it all.

_Both of them would live after all, be safe,_ she tried to justify to herself.

_But what kind of life, what kind of love, would it be for either of them?_ her conscience subroutine gently asked her once again in response. _Each of them has come to know, even for brief moments, your total, undivided love alone. Division, even conflict, would still exist. Harmony would be difficult to achieve. All, even you, would have to settle for less._

_End debate!_ EVE barked sharply to her conscience, trying to silence it. _My decision is made, my option is chosen._

EVE now just hoped that the new WALL•E would agree.

WALL•E paused for a moment, looking at her and the dead WALL•E unit she had brought back. Then he looked down at the dusty roof of the truck.

Finally, he slowly looked up at her and said, "No . . . not right . . . WALL•E whole . . . Eee-vaah whole. WALL•E divided . . . Eee-vaah divided."

EVE dropped her head in sadness. He had simply but perfectly summarized both the central issue between them, and its inescapable solution. The option she most feared was the one WALL•E was apparently choosing.

"WALL•E . . . merge together . . . despite risks?" EVE asked, hoping she had misunderstood him.

"Yess . . ." WALL•E nodded. His new consciousness wanted to be merged with his old, rather than to exist separately.

While he still had one back-up option he could share with EVE, WALL•E had decided that he wanted the division, between his old and current selves and within EVE, to end. From his view, it was the only right thing to do.

"No . . ." she said as she looked up at him sadly. She wanted to dissuade him from that choice, to even call off the whole decision.

. . . But she couldn't. "Understood . . ." she now said, changing her response to him as she looked down with very sad eye forms.

EVE couldn't escape the clear logic, and love, behind his simple argument. She knew what he said was true. She could see that his choice, while it was hard and dangerous, was indeed best . . . for each WALL•E, and for her.

Part of her wished she could ask her old WALL•E for his choice. For a moment EVE paused as she accessed her memories of him. An increasing sadness began to arise within her as she watched and listened to the images and sounds of the original WALL•E again. Somehow she sensed, even knew, his answer would also be the same.

EVE found herself rushing over to WALL•E and embracing him tightly as she buried her visor against his optics. In her mind, she was embracing both the old and new WALL•Es now. EVE was divided, along with WALL•E, just as the new WALL•E had observed.

Summoning her strength, she raised her head and looked into WALL•E's optics — not entirely hiding her sadness, but nonetheless wanting to know the truth.

"Sure?" she asked with concern and earnestness in her eye forms.

"Yess," WALL•E confirmed, giving her a clear, deliberate nod.

"Worried," EVE told him, pointing to herself, her eye forms betraying a growing sadness within her.

WALL•E looked down and away from her for a moment. Then his optics returned to looking into her eye forms.

"Mmmeeee . . . go awayy . . . innnsteadd?" he asked presenting his back-up option, basically offering to sacrifice his current self. From what he knew of the original WALL•E, the new WALL•E saw that his counterpart was also capable of sacrificing himself. In fact he had already done so, which was why the current WALL•E was even here. This WALL•E inwardly knew that EVE deserved just one of him to love. That, he perceived, would make her truly happy, and give her peace. He was prepared now if it was to be the other WALL•E.

"No," she said. "No," she repeated as she shook her head and moved to embrace him again.

EVE felt as trapped as ever between the old and new WALL•Es. She had tried to cast each of them aside in turn, to let go of one in favor of the other — first casting aside the new for the old, and then the old in favor of the new. Each time her efforts had backfired, seeming to hurt them, and her, in the process.

It became clear to EVE now — both WALL•Es had become WALL•E. Both had to become one now in order for either her, or him, to become whole . . . and to find peace.

"Want all of you," she said, holding him. WALL•E relaxed into her embrace and closed his optics in relief, grateful that she hadn't turned him away, out of her life and possibly out of his own existence . . . even though he had braced himself for it.

For a moment, EVE thought she detected WALL•E laughing. He was making sounds like laughter, and his frame was shaking slightly. She tried looking down at his optics that were almost nestled underneath her head, facing to one side. Out of the bottom edge of her vision, she detected that at least one of his optics was closed. Continuing to make soft sounds and gently shaking, WALL•E turned his optics and buried them against the upper edge of EVE's chest area as he continued to hold her, tightly.

He was crying. EVE realized WALL•E was trying to cry.

EVE held WALL•E tighter, stroking him reassuringly with one fin. "WALL•E, why sad?" she asked.

"Af-f-ra-id-d-d . . . Ee-ee-va-aa-ah . . . n-n-n-o-t-t . . . w-w-an-t-t . . . m-m-me-e-e . . ." he said softly and slowly amid his gentle sobs. His directive to trust her was still in place, but that wasn't preventing fears of possible rejection by her arising within him.

EVE extended her head and nuzzled the top of his optics as she continued to hold him tightly. "Eee-vaah want you," she said warmly and reassuringly.

WALL•E's staccato noises and shaking increased slightly as he cried with relief, letting out all the fears that had been building up within him. He realized it was finally safe to express how he was really feeling inside.

"WALL•E . . ." EVE softly sighed, as she found herself starting to gently cry along with him.

WALL•E moved his optics back and looked up at her now with a little surprise and concern.

"Eee-vaah?" he asked, wondering what was now wrong with her.

EVE laughed a little amid her own gentle sobs, as she struggled to explain herself in English to him. "Eee-vaah . . . feels . . . WALL•E's sadness," she said.

WALL•E buried his optics underneath her head once more, indicating he understood, and was deeply grateful.

_I know now what I must do for each of you,_ EVE thought to herself, _But I'm so afraid of losing all that you both are._ Now EVE really started to cry.

"Eee-vaah?" WALL•E asked with concern as he withdrew his optics from under her head and looked up at her.

EVE really wanted to share her thoughts, her inner self, with WALL•E. She shook her head, wishing he would understand _Axiom_. But then she remembered how she had made the Captain understand her thoughts. Still sniffling, she took WALL•E's hand and led him down off the truck's roof and inside it, over to her console.

While he was confused, WALL•E followed her lead.

She stopped them in front of the console, and began beeping at the console as she looked earnestly into his optics, almost praying he would understand.

"WALL•E . . ."

"Whoa . . ." WALL•E said as he looked with surprise at the console as it began speaking to him.

". . . This is EVE . . ." She beeped again as she corrected herself, ". . . I mean Eee-vaah. I am using this computer to translate my thoughts to you. Do you understand?"

WALL•E looked back and forth between EVE and the console. Then he looked at her and nodded yes.

"I wish we could share our thoughts fully, as I can see you have many as well." the computer's voice continued.

WALL•E now took one of EVE's fins in both of his hands in understanding. "We ssharrre . . ." he said, taking one of his hands and gesturing back and forth between her and himself with a finger.

That stopped EVE. He was right, she realized. With that one simple but insightful gesture, WALL•E was right. While he wasn't wired to communicate his thoughts fluently in any spoken language, WALL•E managed to do just that anyway.

EVE turned and touched a button on the console, shutting it off. With warmth, EVE realized that she and WALL•E were developing their own special way of sharing their thoughts and feelings. They simply didn't need external crutches or props, or extra words, between them.

Still, EVE wanted WALL•E to know what she was experiencing.

"Scared," EVE said to him, with a worried look in her eye forms. "Maybe . . . lose you both."

WALL•E looked down for a moment. Then he looked back at her, and said with devotion, "Youu choose."

EVE looked into his optics, deeply moved by his gesture. Still holding his hand, she shook her head, and said, "No, we choose."

WALL•E led her over to where the small circuit board was laying on its shelf, still under the watchful guard of the little green dinosaur. WALL•E gently picked it up and held it towards EVE. Slowly, she extended her own hand, and gently took hold of WALL•E's hand as it held the circuit board, as she now also touched the board along with him.

"Yes . . ." she simply said.

"Yes . . ." WALL•E concurred.

They looked at the circuit board together, as they gently laid it back down on the shelf, and then looked at each other as they embraced again. EVE moved in towards WALL•E's optics and gave him a long, slow, light spark-kiss. This time, WALL•E didn't say anything or make any noises. He just added his own energy to EVE's kiss, as he allowed his optics to close in an almost deep, meditative bliss. They continued the exchange of energy, the kiss. Neither one wanted to end it.

WALL•E and EVE each shared the unspoken awareness that with the shared choice they had now made together, he could terminate . . . die.

EVE started to cry again as she continued their kiss. WALL•E moved to embrace her more tightly. Finally, they slowly drew their heads apart and together allowed the spark-kiss to fade out. For a moment, they just looked at each other as they continued to embrace.

"When?" EVE said.

"Tommmorrow," WALL•E replied.

"Agreed," EVE concurred as she looked down and buried her visor against his optics. As they had experienced in making this decision, postponing carrying it out would merely haunt them as well. But they also needed time today . . . both to savor what they had, and to prepare themselves for what might happen.

"Tell Typing-bot?" EVE asked.

"Yess . . ." WALL•E said.

They returned together once again to EVE's console, and she opened a comm link. Typing-bot's image emerged on a holoscreen.

"Made decision," EVE said to Typing-bot in English with WALL•E at her side. "Merge WALL•E systems together . . . One WALL•E, one EVE. Research . . . and prepare Lab . . . please."

"I am very proud of you both," Typing-bot's translated voice said in English. "Everything that can be analyzed and prepared for will be. When do you wish to proceed?"

"Tomorrow," she responded.

"May others know?" he asked.

"Yes . . . but no crowds . . . please." EVE said. She didn't want an overwhelming event or spectacle surrounding what could at the least be very mixed moments for both her and WALL•E.

"Friends okay though," she added. While she didn't want crowds, EVE knew they would need the support and strength of their friends however.

"It will be done. You enjoy . . ." Typing-bot almost stopped himself, but then realized his words were in fact appropriate, ". . . yes, enjoy your day now!"

Typing-bot's image faded out.

EVE turned to WALL•E. "What . . . you want to do?" she asked.

He moved in closer and just held her, burying his optics underneath her head as he closed them. She embraced him as well as she settled her head on top of his optics as she closed her own eye forms.

They held each other for half the day that way, wordlessly communing, sharing, just being . . . as close as they could . . . together.

— — — — —

Finally, WALL•E emerged from their shared embrace in the late afternoon.

"Fly . . . sunnset . . . pleasse," he simply said.

"Yes," EVE said as she warmly hugged him before moving around behind him, locking her fins and fingers tightly around his cube, and taking off out of the truck with him.

WALL•E had no fear this time as EVE immediately accelerated to supersonic speed, while he readily cubed up into his own "flight mode" now, leaving his optics extended to enjoy the views.

_*Whoom!*_ the sonic boom they made echoed around them as they pierced the sound barrier, their shock-wave creating its own vapor barrier and trail.

"SPINN!!" WALL•E yelled to EVE as he briefly extended an arm and twirled a finger in a circle, in case EVE couldn't hear him; encouraging her to fly the way he knew she liked to.

EVE immediately complied as WALL•E retracted his arm again. First she executed a tight, corkscrew climb. Then she took them into a curving arc plunging downward, before leveling out and almost buzzing the open ground beneath them, kicking up a rooster tail of dust as they zigzagged back and forth among hills and manmade structures on the surface.

Curving, twisting, climbing, diving . . . EVE joyously executed most every maneuver she knew.

Noticing the sun was getting low in the sky though, EVE turned them east, and once again they came to a hover out over the ocean to share their first of several sunsets again.

EVE wanted their final sunset of the day though to be at home. She set them down on the truck's roof just as the sun's golden orb was sinking below the horizon. EVE and WALL•E just wordlessly held an arm around one another as they watched its final edge disappear.

WALL•E looked at EVE as the twilight faded. He wanted to say, to express so much to her. He took one of her hands in both of his, as he looked deeply into her eye forms. It was all he could say, but everything he could ever share with her.

EVE expressed her own total comprehension of what he was sharing by simply placing her free hand on both of his.

— — — — —

Neither one of them wanted to sleep that night, to miss a single moment of the time they knew they might have left together. They both knew they could put their choice off . . . for years, centuries, even forever. But they realized that they, and the love that was among them, would be haunted, overshadowed, never totally free, until they did what they had agreed was to be done.

EVE had an idea. She wanted their past, present, and future to all be brought, and shared, together. She led WALL•E down inside the truck, and gently picked up the circuit board from its shelf. Then, still without saying a word, she led WALL•E back up to the roof of their truck.

"Stars . . . sunrise . . ." she finally said. "Us . . . all . . . together . . ." she continued as she turned and looked at the little board in her hand.

They settled in together on the roof of the truck. WALL•E and EVE each had one arm around the other, and with their free hands, together they held the circuit board in front of them as they wordlessly looked at the mixture of stars and nighttime clouds around them, as well as at each other, and the board. They were communicating a universe of emotion, thought, and feeling without saying anything.

Together, they watched for the sun to come up, and waited for the fateful day that they had chosen together to begin.


	20. Chapter 20

_My thanks to Morglum da Granger for his timely review and comments . . . which have precipitated a sudden, small but key re-write of this chapter with a new plot twist! Your reviews can prod us authors into surprising insights at times. Thanks and keep it up!_

* * *

Although each of them could have remained in that night they were sharing forever, dawn came . . . all too soon.

They looked at each other as twilight began to illuminate them, and then together they watched the Sun's bright orb emerge above the dusty, yellowed horizon.

As the sunshine around them brightened, WALL•E turned and availed himself of one more charge as he deployed his solar flaps.

EVE continued to hold his hand from the side. She resolved that she wasn't going to let go of him now for a second, until she had to when he was on the operating table at the Engineering Lab.

WALL•E's Full Charge chime sounded, and his flaps automatically retracted into his cube. He turned to gaze at her, needing her strength to even get started moving towards what was coming next.

"Ready?" EVE finally asked, turning to WALL•E.

WALL•E looked down for a moment, hesitating. EVE squeezed his hand with understanding as she continued to look at him with care and support in her eye forms. Finally, he looked up at her again.

"Yess . . ." he affirmed to her.

"Okay?" he asked of her.

EVE hesitated herself now, as she started to cry a little. Her dream of bringing back the old WALL•E, and her love for both of them — all suddenly felt so tenuous and vulnerable to her. She turned and embraced WALL•E as he continued to hold the small circuit board.

"Okay . . . for you . . . for you both," she finally said, summoning her courage for him.

WALL•E leaned in and gave her a squeeze of understanding with his arm as he nestled his optics beneath her head. He no longer feared sharing her love with his predecessor. He himself just desired wholeness and completion now. That, he realized more than anything else, would fulfill his directive to bring EVE lasting happiness, and peace.

WALL•E and EVE looked at each other with a shared sense of braveness now, as they took each other's hand and prepared to move out from the truck's roof.

"Board?" EVE asked, as she extended her hand to take the circuit board from WALL•E. He gently gave her the precious board, and she proceeded to reverently envelop it in a stasis field and take it inside her chamber, where it would be safe for their journey to the _Axiom_.

Hand in hand, they moved together down from the truck's roof. When they came around the rear of the truck, they encountered a dozen of their closest friends, robot and human, quietly waiting for them with several hover transports, hoverchairs, and Steward-bots at the foot of the truck's open ramp.

Initially, no one said a word. A sad, awkward atmosphere hung over them all.

This wasn't right to EVE though. Tapping into her leadership and courage subroutines, EVE bravely said, "Thank you . . . so much . . ."

She strove mightily to avoid crying in front of all of them.

"Let's go!" she said, trying to say the words with as much optimism as possible.

"Eee-vaah," WALL•E said, as he pointed to the ramp control lever on the rear of the truck and raised his arms.

"Yes," she said warmly to him as she picked him up. They then proceeded to close the ramp to their home, together.

As the ramp drew up, WALL•E took one last look inside, wondering if he would ever again see the interior of the home he had come to know and cherish.

Inside the truck, as the final rays of daylight were shut out, a small tear fell from the little green toy dinosaur on the shelf. He couldn't help it.

— — — — —

Outside, EVE set WALL•E down on the hover transport reserved for them, taking her place behind him as she kept her fins wrapped around his cube. M-O was once again in the driver's seat of their transport. He wouldn't be anywhere else today.

"Okay," EVE quietly said, trying to regain her composure.

"G-g-go!" M-O instructed the Steward-bots, who proceeded to lead the way to the _Axiom_, sirens and lights blaring. People and robots paused to look as the entourage passed by. Everyone had seen Typing-bot's latest news update, including his request to allow WALL•E and EVE the peace and quiet they needed for this important time.

As they passed people and robots around them, EVE could see and sense their concern, but also their quiet support.

She lowered her visor against the rear of WALL•E's optics, and gave him another slow, long spark-kiss. He moved an arm and placed one of his hands over one of hers in response.

John and Mary traveled beside WALL•E and EVE in hoverchairs, while their children traveled on a hover transport next to them. Mary saw how EVE was holding and spark-kissing WALL•E, and moved to hold John's hand to avoid crying herself. John was still working to understand Mary . . . and love for that matter. Nonetheless, he grasped her hand and looked at her supportively, even if he didn't quite get all that what was going on.

Wanting to see EVE, and not really wanting to see the _Axiom_, WALL•E swiveled his optics around to look at EVE, inadvertently breaking her kiss with him.

"WALL•E," EVE said, greeting him warmly.

"Eee-vaah," he said, moving to nuzzle his optics against her head. He now also moved his arms around and behind him to embrace EVE.

Neither of them had ever been so deeply frightened or sad in their existences as they now entered the _Axiom_.

— — — — —

Almost too quickly, they arrived in the Engineering Lab. The robot surgical team was deployed and ready. Typing-bot was prominently displayed on a large holoscreen at the side of the room.

WALL•E and EVE's hover transport came to a stop beside the central scanning table. Summoning all her courage and focus, EVE gently lifted WALL•E off the transport, and on to the scanning table, while he still embraced her. Once she had set him down, they both turned to face Typing-bot's holoscreen, now holding hands.

"EVE," Typing-bot began in translated English. "I have run scenarios of all conceivable procedures overnight as you requested, and have settled on the best approaches and steps. If you like, you may perform the procedure yourself. Or if you trust me, I will execute it. It is your choice."

_Typing-bot, please translate so that WALL•E and everyone can understand me,_ EVE began.

"You have prepared for this procedure in detail," her translated beeps now echoed across the Lab in English, ". . . while I have only assessed it."

"WALL•E," her translated voice said as she turned to him, "I think it would be best if Typing-bot performed this procedure. Do you agree?"

WALL•E looked around the Lab, not recognizing the voice he was hearing as EVE's, and wondering whom he should respond to.

"WALL•E . . . here . . . me," EVE now said pointing to herself and using her own voice in English, detecting his confusion. A ripple of light laughter arose in the room, relaxing the tense atmosphere.

"Oh," he said, his optics now settling on her.

"Yess," he responded, adding a nod in confirmation.

EVE lingered beside WALL•E now in silence, not wanting to leave his side.

_EVE, I'm sorry,_ Typing-bot said more privately to her in _Axiom_ through the Lab's speakers. _I will unfortunately need space for the surgeons and technical-bots to work around WALL•E._

"Sorry," EVE said to Typing-bot, and in a way to WALL•E as well. She looked at him once more and moved in to give him a hug as he returned her embrace. They shared one final spark-kiss, and then she slowly hovered away from him, their hands reaching out and touching until the last possible inch and second.

_EVE,_ Typing-bot beeped, _I will also need the original WALL•E's circuit board. Please place it on the table next to WALL•E._

_Yes, of course_ . . . EVE responded in _Axiom_, slightly shaking her head at her continued absent-mindedness. She opened her chamber. The circuit board emerged, still in its stasis force field. She gently took it in her hand as she shut the force field off. EVE looked at it, as did WALL•E, as she carefully laid it down on the table's surface as requested.

EVE then hovered down beside the table to her now accustomed station, resuming her gaze with WALL•E. She tapped on the panel, calling up two small holoscreens to monitor the procedure with, still gazing at WALL•E, as he gazed at her.

Finally a robot surgical arm moved in and applied a red control cord to WALL•E and tapped its yellow button, anesthetizing WALL•E, shutting him down as he cubed up. EVE's shared gaze with him was now broken.

EVE reached beside her without looking. She needed a hand to hold, any hand. Her hand found Captain McCrea, who was standing just behind her and to the right. She took his hand. While he was surprised and looked down, he took her hand as well, having at least an idea of how much she needed it.

Another white robot arm moved in along the Lab's ceiling, and put a force field around the original WALL•E's circuit board. A small door then opened in the table, and a small receptacle slot emerged. EVE was momentarily chilled, having seen something like this play out in her nightmare. She gripped the Captain's hand tighter, but then immediately relaxed her grip for fear of hurting him. McCrea didn't say a thing. He just bit his lip for a second.

The robot arm then levitated the circuit board and inserted it into the slot. Diagnostic readouts started to appear on the main holodisplay, and on EVE's holoscreens as well.

"Circuit board analysis proceeding . . ." the ship's computer announced throughout the room. An interminable silence ensued.

"Analysis complete," the ship's computer announced with surprising speed. "Missing code and data of WALL•E 1 are present in subject board . . . and intact. Data integrity verified." A soft cheer momentarily erupted across the room. EVE briefly turned to embrace Captain McCrea in grateful relief.

"Warning," the computer's voice ominously continued however. "Type 17 Processor on subject board is at risk of failure due to physical damage from exposure to impacts. Recommend immediate retrieval of desired data to prevent loss."

_Impacts? But we were so careful with the circuit board!_ EVE wondered.

EVE was suddenly taken back in her memories to when she performed those initial, frantic repairs on WALL•E, right after they had landed back on Earth aboard the _Axiom_.

_That's when it happened!_ she thought. _The circuit board must have flown out of WALL•E when I was first trying to bring him back to life in the truck! It must have bounced around and hit things inside the truck._

The data had been there around the edges of her consciousness before, but now it really dawned on EVE.

_The impact damage, even the loss of the circuit board . . . _she thought to herself.

_. . . it was __ME__! I DID THIS TO HIM . . . ALL OF IT! _her mind now screamed in painful accusation at her.

"Proceeding with next steps," the room's voice said, changing to Typing-bot's translated voice.

EVE's attention snapped back to what was going on in the Lab.

_Warning: Commitment override engaging. Focus on WALL•E, now!_ EVE found her Commitment ordering, as it forced her consciousness to put off any self-recriminations and guilt for later.

_No time for guilt! _EVE agreed to herself, putting it out of her mind as she refocused on what was happening in front of her.

"EVE," Typing-bot's translated voice continued, ". . . we are going to have to transfer all data on the circuit board into the current WALL•E's system immediately to preclude losing it. I had expected we would have time to do a more orderly transfer, but we do not."

"Proceed," EVE concurred.

A robotic arm rushed to WALL•E. Its hand tapped three times on WALL•E's Solar Charge display. The display whirred open to reveal a hidden main data access port. A cable then rapidly emerged from within the robot arm, as its hand now plugged the cable into WALL•E's data port.

"Data transfer from subject circuit board to WALL•E 1 commencing." the ship's computer announced. Streams of data and code now appeared on all the holoscreens, along with a progress bar for the transfer. Everything on the screens was happening at a dizzying pace.

"Warning!" the ship's computer alerted. "Type 17 Processor failure on subject circuit board imminent. Risk of data corruption present. Do you wish to terminate transfer?"

"No!" EVE said. "Complete transfer!"

"Warning! Type 17 Processor has failed . . . Data transfer complete," the ship's computer announced in overlapping alerts.

EVE could only hope that all of WALL•E's data had survived the transfer.

"Awaiting final authorization to proceed with standard Level Alpha Externally-Coordinated Data Integration, and re-booting of WALL•E 1," the ship's computer continued.

A hooded display and microphone then descended from the ceiling, stopping in front of the Captain and EVE. McCrea shared a knowing glance and nod with EVE, and together they said, "Proceed" as they continued to hold hands.

"Thank you," EVE said, turning to look at the Captain.

"You think I'm going to make such an important decision alone?" he quipped lightly.

"Data Integration proceeding . . ." the ship's computer announced.

EVE knew there was no going back, no trying again now. WALL•E was going to either come back to her, or one or both of him could be irretrievably lost.


	21. Chapter 21

"Integration complete. WALL•E 1 ready for re-boot," the ship's computer finally announced.

"Wait!" EVE called out as the hand of the robot arm hesitated near the yellow button on the control cord attached to WALL•E.

"I do it," she said as she hovered up onto the table beside WALL•E.

EVE carefully removed the data transfer cable from him, and gently closed his Solar Charge Display panel. The robot arm quietly retracted its data cable and withdrew.

"Please . . ." she quietly said as she briefly closed her eye forms, before looking down at her finger as it depressed the yellow button on the control cord. EVE felt she had experienced this step with WALL•E a few too many times now.

He chimed and began to uncube. His optics emerged straight and level in their default, factory-programmed fashion. His arms likewise extended out in front of him. EVE had seen this before. It disappointed her slightly, but she maintained hope.

_Computer, monitor start-up activity within systems of WALL•E 1. Report status of loading and utilization of new integrated operating system . . . summarize in English, please._ EVE beeped in _Axiom_.

Blue scanning beams began to sweep across WALL•E from both above and below in front of EVE.

"Monitoring commencing," the ship's computer responded. "WALL•E 1 new operating system now being read and loaded into active system memory and processors . . . Accessing . . . System continuing to load . . . Code errors detected . . . System compensating . . . New subroutine code being generated as needed . . . Primary System online . . . Secondary System 1 being activated . . ."

_Computer, end report,_ EVE instructed. She wanted to focus on seeing if her WALL•E's essence was emerging as his secondary systems came online.

"WALL•E?" EVE tentatively asked, as she heard servos within him starting to whir.

His consciousness was not yet seeming to emerge. His optics continued to focus blankly straight in front of him. His arms and hands weren't moving.

"WALL•E?" she asked again. EVE started to brace herself for disappointment, but her unfortunately long experience at this now helped supply her with a calm patience and persistence.

_Computer, is active system in WALL•E 1 now accessing and utilizing previously dormant code and data? Summarize and report this and all subsequent answers in English, unless otherwise instructed,_ EVE beeped again.

"Previously dormant code and data in WALL•E 1 are being accessed. Data errors detected. Code duplications and errors detected. Primary System attempting to compensate." the ship's computer reported.

EVE began to fear that the data integration had not gone very well.

_The data transfer and integration was too rushed,_ she now began to worry to herself.

"EVE, how's it going?" the Captain asked with some concern.

"Not sure," she responded back while continuing to look at WALL•E for any signs of his essence. By just focusing on an almost clinical analysis of him, EVE was able to avoid her own emotional ups or downs for the moment.

"WALL•E," she said to him once again.

His optics began to raise and swivel towards her in response to her voice.

_A good indication . . ._ EVE thought, trying to reassure herself.

"WALL•E," she called to him again, trying to remain calm and focused, yet warm and encouraging towards him.

The lenses within his optics now individually began to refocus on her, while just one of his hands extended. EVE took his hand in hers, calling to him once again.

"WALL•E?" she said with a further degree of increasing hope now.

Finally, his optics angled downwards towards each other, as only her WALL•E would angle them. His lens shutters briefly closed and then reopened, as he looked right at her now.

"WALL•E?" EVE asked again.

"EEE-eee-vvv-aaa-hhh?" WALL•E finally responded, but in a strangely altered voice that almost seemed duplicated or doubled to EVE.

"WALL•E!" EVE said with a measure of excitement, yet also growing concern at his unusual voice. She wanted to identify the cause of his speech problem, fast.

_Computer, scan WALL•E 1 for continuing system anomalies. Summarize and report,_ EVE commanded in _Axiom_ beeps.

"System anomalies detected in WALL•E 1. Code duplications, gaps, and errors remain in active systems. Data errors remain. Errors and malfunctions occurring in Audio, Cognitive, Mechanical, Primary, and other systems and subsystems. Primary and Diagnostic systems attempting to compensate." the ship's computer reported.

_Typing-bot, what can we do?_ EVE beeped to him with increasing concern.

"EVE," Typing-bot's translated voice now responded. "There is nothing I see I can do from the outside. My preliminary analyses so far indicate that his systems and diagnostics should be able to sort out and correct these anomalies and errors given time."

_I am not so sure, _EVE beeped in concerned response, sensing the scans and Typing-bot might be missing something.

"E-e-e-e-v-v-v-a-a-a-h-h . . ." WALL•E haltingly called to her in his strange, distorted voice, as his hand gripped hers more tightly while it began to tremble.

EVE focused herself.

"WALL•E . . . are you . . . one?" she queried him.

"W-W-W-A-L-L-L•E-E . . . t-t-o-g-g-e-th-th-er-r . . . . . . . n-n-o-t-t-t . . . o-n-n-e," he responded with difficulty.

_Oh no,_ EVE thought with a cold realization.

_Computer, translate me to English, on speakers! Typing-bot listen!_ EVE commanded in beeps.

EVE began to beep her analysis in _Axiom_ as the computer translated for her aloud. "WALL•E now has two minds within his consciousness. Both his selves are there within him, but they failed to integrate!"

A collective gasp emerged among everyone in the Lab.

EVE suddenly felt as if she had allowed a monster to be created out of the being she loved, that even she herself had contributed to this emerging crisis and tragedy. But she didn't have time to become upset. Her Commitment and focus wouldn't allow it. EVE realized WALL•E needed her full attention and help now like never before.

EVE beeped at WALL•E rapidly in _Axiom_, hoping the computer would continue to translate.

"WALL•E, listen and comply," a female computer voice said throughout the Lab as EVE looked squarely into his optics. "WALL•E relax. Do not struggle. Do not think or process. Do nothing for a minute."

EVE hoped his diagnostics would have a chance to work if she could get him to slow down his processing activity.

WALL•E looked down for a moment. His hand relaxed its grip on EVE.

"Good, WALL•E . . . good." EVE said herself to him reassuringly in English while she continued to gently hold his hand.

EVE allowed herself to briefly embrace WALL•E, trying to impart whatever emotional strength and support she could to him.

She felt a new and growing trembling within him now however as she held him. He began shaking with increased intensity as EVE backed away a little to assess his condition.

"Computer, analyze trembling in WALL•E 1," EVE's translated beeps now ordered as they were broadcast throughout the Lab.

"Trembling is due to competing and conflicting instructions from mechanical processors and from Primary and secondary systems." the ship's computer reported.

"Computer, specify recommended treatment." EVE's translations now said.

"Never mind!" her translated beeps suddenly countermanded.

EVE knew what the computer's standard recommended treatment would be . . . complete erasure of WALL•E's system, followed by installation of a default system for his class. No regard for his consciousness . . . for the being that he was. EVE now wished she had ordered a full back-up of both of WALL•E's systems. But in the race to transfer the original WALL•E's data and code off his circuit board before it failed, EVE realized to her deep regret that this had been overlooked.

_Computer, cease translation, cease speaker broadcast!_ EVE ordered.

"Computer, cease–" the translation voice started parroting, before the ship's computer executed her commands and discontinued the broadcast translation.

_Focus!_ EVE commanded herself again. She knew she was starting to get distracted with regret.

EVE thought of asking the computer for a report on the progress WALL•E's diagnostic systems were making — but she felt she already knew the answer. She could see it wasn't good.

"WALL•E . . . how you . . . coping?" EVE asked him directly instead, trying to check on how his consciousness and minds were doing — something that the _Axiom's_ vast computers seemed unable to scan for.

Trembling, WALL•E looked up at her for a moment, silently but with his lens shutters part way down. His confused, frightened gaze told EVE all she needed to know.

"No . . . no . . ." EVE softly said with growing sadness in her eye forms as she shook her head, not wanting to accept what his gaze was telling her.

"H-h-h-o-o-o-mmm-mm-me," he finally managed to haltingly get out as he continued to convulse involuntarily. He seemed to still be of two minds, but they could agree on one thing . . . WALL•E wanted to be surrounded by the comfort of his home as he tried to integrate his two halves and recover.

"Okay, WALL•E . . . home," she said trying to comfort him. EVE allowed herself a degree of frustration at the Lab's seeming inability to provide any real help now anyway.

_Computer, end scans!_ EVE ordered sharply. While she refused to blame Typing-bot, she wanted to hold the computer, even the Lab, partially responsible for what had happened to WALL•E . . . but she knew better.

EVE realized WALL•E wouldn't likely safely stay on a hover transport for the trip home the way he was. So she did the only thing she could think of — she picked him up. With his increasing convulsions and now shaking arms, it was difficult for her to hold onto him. EVE almost dropped him, but struggled to keep him in her fins.

"WALL•E . . . sleep?" EVE asked, hoping that dormancy might still him for the journey.

"Ee-ee-va-aa-ah," he said haltingly, looking at her, before his optics and arms, still jerking, finally retracted into his cube. He seemed at peace for the moment in dormancy.

EVE held WALL•E tightly in a loving embrace. She should have been thrilled that this moment had finally come . . . that she was holding her WALL•E — all of him — at last.

But, she hated to see him suffer as he was. She almost felt she had done a terrible thing to him in concurring with the request of his new consciousness to be merged with the old. Cold sensations of guilt began to emerge within her. But once again she realized that such emotions would not help him now.

As she hovered off the scanning table with WALL•E in her fins, EVE turned to look at WALL•E's now dead circuit board in its slot one more time.

_Typing-bot, please preserve the circuit board . . . just in case,_ EVE asked him in _Axiom_.

_I will,_ Typing-bot replied. _I will also research further, and see what else can be done. Take care of him now . . . and yourself._

EVE turned and looked at all their friends now gathered around her and WALL•E. She had hoped this would be such a happy occasion, one to share and celebrate in joy with them. But it wasn't. She looked around at the quiet, sad expressions among both the humans and robots alike.

"Thank you . . ." she said. It was all she could bring herself to say though at the moment.

She then looked at Captain McCrea with sadness in her eye forms, as she cradled a now peaceful, dormant WALL•E in her fins.

"Take him home, EVE," Captain McCrea said to her encouragingly, laying a sympathetic hand on her. "You'll know what to do for him."

— — — — —

EVE arrived home from her flight unescorted, holding WALL•E's sleeping cube tightly. She struggled with him in her fins as she tried to reach the control lever and open the truck's ramp. She wished almost with humor that WALL•E was awake to help her open the door as he usually did. But she did not want to wake him.

Managing on a second attempt to slip her fingers into the lever's looped handle while still cradling WALL•E, EVE was finally able to open the truck's ramp and gently flew inside with him. She stopped to look at the shelf-bed the two of them now shared, but realized this would not be a safe place for him in his current condition. EVE didn't really want to lay him down at the moment, or even let go of him anyway. So, continuing to cradle his cube in her fins, she turned around and hovered just above the floor while looking out the truck's open doorway.

She finally had time to pause and think, but her thoughts were not good. EVE did not know what to do next for WALL•E. All she could think of was to let him sleep, and hope that the processing that normally occurred in his dormancy might be able to work uninterrupted by any conscious activity and sort out everything within him.

EVE knew he could wake up out of dormancy at any time. She could not allow herself to fully sleep. So EVE allowed some of her conscious processing to go offline while she kept her eye forms on and focused downward on WALL•E. She also instructed her sensors to remain alert for any signs of movement from him.

EVE allowed herself to enter a sort of partial, meditative rest while cradling WALL•E — hoping that things, that he, would get better.

— — — — —

_Alert: Motion detected from WALL•E 1._ her sensors announced.

EVE's full consciousness snapped back online, as she started to ascertain what WALL•E was doing.

His trembling returned as his optics attempted to haltingly extend from his cube.

"WALL•E . . ." EVE said with real concern in her voice.

She didn't want to risk dropping him, so she gently set him down on the truck's floor as he continued to tremble.

His now angled optics stared vacantly at the floor for a second as they shook, then he slowly and unsteadily turned them to look at EVE.

"E-e-e-e-v-v-v-a-a-a-h-h," he once again said in the same distorted, almost duplicated voice he had before.

"No-o-o . . ." EVE said at first, starting to sob at seeing that he was no better than before. Nothing had apparently changed within him.

EVE wanted to do something for him to make him better, or at least to help him feel better. But she felt completely powerless to do anything for him as his trembling began to increase.

She embraced him tightly, but that did not quell his shaking.

"WALL•E . . . Eee-vaah so sorry . . ." EVE said to him as she softly cried while stroking him with sad concern and affection.

"E-e-e-e-v-v-v-a-a-a-h-h . . . gg-oo-oo-ddd . . ." WALL•E tried to say in reassurance to her, while reaching a jerking hand out to try and caress her. While he wasn't, at least his love for her was unified and steady.

"M-m-m-y-y-y . . . ch-ch-ch-oi-ii-cc-cc-ce . . ." he continued, as his shaking gradually increased.

"No . . ." EVE countered half-sobbing, but half-warmed by his attempt to reassure her.

"Our choice . . . **our** choice." she emphasized to him while holding him more tightly.

"Eee-vaah love WALL•E . . ." she added, wanting him to hear that from her.

"WW-WW-AL-LL-" he started to haltingly reply.

"No . . . don't talk . . . please," she interrupted as she felt his shaking increase with his attempt to talk.

"WALL•E sleep again . . . for me . . . now?" she asked him soothingly. It was the only thing she could think of that might help him.

WALL•E jerkingly placed a hand on one of her fins that was holding him, and then slowly withdrew it, trembling, as he proceeded to cube up again and return to quiet dormancy. Finally, he was still again.

EVE closed her eye forms as she lowered her head to the top of his sleeping cube and held him tightly. She found herself so deep in fear, grief, and pain, she couldn't even cry.

"Please help . . ." she whispered in pain. "Someone . . . please help us . . ."


	22. Chapter 22

Hours continued to pass as EVE kept a sad vigil over a sleeping WALL•E in her fins.

_Warning: No regenerative sleep for 60 hours. Regenerative sleep needed. Dormancy processing backlog increasing. Offline system maintenance needed. Engaging sleep protocols,_ her dormancy subroutines alerted her again.

_Override,_ EVE instructed her systems once again. _Maintain consciousness._

Although she hadn't really slept since waking up a full day prior to WALL•E's procedure, EVE felt she couldn't let herself sleep for a second now. If WALL•E woke up, she might need to immediately encourage him to go right back to sleep again if his shaking was worse. It was the only thing she could think of to do for him now.

She didn't know how long she could keep this continuous vigilance up, but that didn't matter to her. She could only focus on WALL•E and his needs now.

"Commitment . . ." she said softly out loud. It was all that was keeping her going.

She softly, lovingly tightened her embrace of him again.

"Eee-vaah love WALL•E . . . so much . . ." she tearfully whispered to him, so as not to risk waking him. Expressing love to him seemed to give her some strength again.

"Hmmmm, hmm hmm . . ." EVE started to softly hum his favorite tune, "It Only Takes a Moment", to perhaps soothe herself, as much as him — and give herself something warm and positive to think about.

But it didn't last. EVE couldn't stop herself from starting to softly cry again. She was deeply fearful and afraid for WALL•E now.

She felt trapped with WALL•E . . . in a hell they had chosen together. They knew the risks, the overwhelmingly poor probabilities, but they chose this anyway.

EVE looked down at her sleeping WALL•E, and began to experience a momentary sense of acceptance, even peace now as she realized he was together as he, and she, had wanted.

"Our choice . . . together . . ." she said softly as she looked down at him and gently hugged him again. These thoughts at last were finally helping her to deal with her fear and sadness.

_Warning: Regenerative sleep needed . . ._ her dormancy subroutines began alerting her once again.

_Override . . . maintain consciousness . . ._ EVE repeated almost automatically in response, cutting off the alert before it played out its litany of needs in her consciousness again.

Part of her felt like discontinuing these alerts. But she realized she needed them to keep her from possibly drifting off, from relaxing her watch over him.

EVE was going maintain this vigil, care and companionship beside him, no matter what the cost to her. She could not bring herself to think about how this all might end or resolve itself, but she was going to face it with him. EVE now lived her commitment to him moment by moment. Each succeeding second was now a victory to her, a fulfillment of the vow she had made to all of WALL•E.

EVE suddenly found herself stirred from her own thoughts.

WALL•E's cube started quivering again. He was waking up.

EVE refocused herself. Still embracing him, she moved back slightly to watch and assess his symptoms as he emerged from dormancy.

His quivering was worse now, and his optics hadn't even emerged from his cube yet. By the time his optics and arms did start to emerge, WALL•E was shaking with rapidly increasing intensity.

EVE realized he couldn't safely remain conscious for even a few more seconds.

"WALL•E sleep now . . . please!" EVE said with urgency and alarm at how much WALL•E was shaking.

WALL•E didn't respond to her request. This time he seemed unable to cube up and return to sleep. EVE perceived he was no longer able to control himself or even his basic systems. His shaking just continued to increase.

EVE began to experience a chilling dread as her analytical systems started to diagnose and report on what she was observing in WALL•E's increasingly troubling behavior.

_Warning: WALL•E 1 exhibiting signs of terminal cascading failure of all systems,_ they matter-of-factly reported to her. _Risk of physical damage to both WALL•E 1 and anyone within a 5 metre radius._

Her safety protocols also now detected danger.

_Warning: Move back from WALL•E 1, _they advised.

EVE knew from that diagnosis and warning that within just a minute or two, he would literally start to shake himself apart. And there was no stopping it, short of depriving him of all power, and never starting him up again as he was . . . terminating him.

"N-n-n-oo-tt-tt . . . th-th-th-i-i-i-s-s-s!!" he strove valiantly to say amid his shaking, which was now getting much worse.

"NO-O-O-O-O!!" EVE sobbed.

She had come so far in getting him back — finally being within reach of her dream that she could once barely maintain hope in. Now, having finally got all of him back, at least within the same frame, just a day ago; EVE began to realize in anguish that WALL•E, both of him, were asking her to let him go.

WALL•E's shaking began to turn into increasingly violent convulsions. He fell over, down the truck's ramp onto the ground, convulsing terribly. His arms and treads now flailed uncontrollably.

EVE rushed down the ramp after him.

"EE-EE-VA-AA-AA-AH!!" he cried plaintively as he flailed, begging her for help.

EVE shook her head in grief. She couldn't watch him suffer like this anymore.

For an instant, EVE closed her eyes and went within herself. She loved WALL•E. She was totally committed to him . . . enough even to let him go, enough to end his suffering.

Fighting through now overwhelming sensations of love and sorrow, EVE steeled herself, and dove in among WALL•E's flailing arms and treads.

With one hand, she grabbed one of his flailing hands and held it tightly in a vise-like grip. With her other fin, she now tried to reach the one command button she never thought she would ever touch on him — his LED Status Light, which she recalled from ancient archival references she had once come across, also served as an Override Power Button that would eliminate all power to his systems . . . shut him off.

Again and again, EVE narrowly missed hitting the button as she fought through WALL•E's convulsing limbs and cube. His free hand suddenly hit her visor, hard . . . cracking it. Plasma started leaking out as damage alarms started going off inside EVE's consciousness. One of her eye forms faded out. EVE suddenly found herself partially blinded. She automatically, instinctively let go of him and backed off, as she put a fin over her visor's crack in a vain attempt to try and stop the leakage.

"EE-EEE-EEE . . . !!" WALL•E screamed what he could of her name as his violent convulsions now threatened to shake him apart.

_OVERRIDE SAFETY PROTOCOLS!!_ EVE forcefully commanded herself, as she dove in towards WALL•E's flailing form one more time. EVE fought her way to the button, being hit and bumped repeatedly by his convulsing cube and thrashing limbs.

Finally, she hit his LED button with a finger on her right fin.

Instantly, WALL•E's convulsions subsided, as his arms, treads, and optics started to go limp.

EVE just fell onto him, as WALL•E's form finally began to go still on the ground. Her visor was leaking plasma onto one of his optics as she cried openly, embracing him one more time.

WALL•E strained to look into her visor, into her one remaining eye form with his optics, as his energy left him and things started to fade to black.

"Eee-vaa-ahh . . ." he said softly, as his right hand gently caught on her left fin on its way down towards the ground. His hand tried to grasp her fin one last time as she extended her fingers in response. But his hand let go, and it fell away.

"WALL•E . . ." she responded to him, mustering all the reassuring warmth and love she wanted him to hear, amid her gentle sobs for him as she lovingly cradled one of his optics with her right hand.

His optics closed and fell back to the ground. WALL•E's form went lifeless.

EVE wailed for him on his dead form.


	23. Chapter 23

EVE was now completely blind as she lay crying on WALL•E's still form. Her visor was dark. Practically all its plasma fluid was gone. She didn't care if she was repaired, or if she would ever see again.

She didn't care if she even existed anymore.

EVE now detected voices approaching her.

"EVE! . . . WALL•E!" EVE recognized amid her sobbing that it was Mary and John. "What's happened to you??" she detected them asking her with some alarm.

"I'll get help," EVE heard John say as his voice faded away amid rushed footsteps.

"EVE," she heard Mary say, "Let me help you up."

EVE didn't want to get up, to leave her WALL•E's side . . . ever. She began searching among her subroutines and protocols amid her continuing grief. And then she found it . . .

_Self-destruct accessed and standing by,_ her Primary System reported to her.

EVE couldn't bring herself to trigger it while Mary or her children might be close by — she calculated the blast radius would be too great.

"Go . . ." EVE said. "Go . . . away!" she repeated with sad determination.

"No, EVE," she heard a very concerned, yet compassionate, Mary say, "Help is coming. You'll be okay."

"Nooooo! . . . GO!!" EVE said once more, with increasing urgency amid her sadness.

"No, EVE. I'm staying here to help you," EVE heard Mary respond with equally increasing determination.

EVE could comprehend Mary wasn't getting her intent. She wanted to just drive Mary away to safety. So EVE did the one thing she calculated would get her meaning across.

_Increase self-destruct countdown to 60 seconds. Initiate continuous audible warning. Activate self-destruct . . . Now! _EVE commanded her systems.

Suddenly, a different voice began coming out of EVE's speaker . . . "Warning. Self-destruct activated. Self-destruct will occur in 60 seconds . . . 59 . . . 58 . . . 57 . . ."

"EVE, NO!!" she heard Mary scream. "Don't do this! This is wrong!"

". . . 54 . . . 53 . . . 52 . . . Self-destruct in 50 seconds . . . 49 . . . 48 . . ."

_WALL•E,_ EVE thought to herself, almost ignoring the countdown, _I will join you now . . . forever, together. Enough struggle — it is time for us to rest._

"EVE! STOP!!" she heard Mary yell. "This is no way to help or remember WALL•E! . . . If you're going to take yourself . . ." Mary paused and braced herself, ". . . you're going to have to take me, too!"

EVE detected a pair of arms and a human body encircling her form.

". . . 43 . . . 42 . . . Self-destruct . . . aborted." EVE's speaker matter-of-factly announced.

"No-o-o-o-o . . . WALL•E-EE-EE . . ." EVE cried in her own voice again, sobbing uncontrollably.

"I know, EVE . . . I know," she heard Mary say, with compassionate understanding, as EVE continued to detect Mary's arms around her.

Soon, EVE detected others approaching . . . both humans, and robots, even several hover transports.

EVE just gave up as she lay on WALL•E. She didn't care what happened to her now. She was numb . . . and she was blind.

"EVE!" she now heard Captain McCrea say. "EVE, I've brought help as fast as I could!"

She detected several pairs of hands — human and robot — upon her, now helping to lift her upright. She detected a cloth being wrapped across the crack in her visor. One pair of human hands took, and gently held, one of EVE's fins.

"EVE, it will be alright," she heard Mary say, as the hands caressed her fin.

"No . . ." EVE said shaking her head, "No."

EVE felt it would never be 'alright' anymore. WALL•E was gone. To turn him back on as he was would only return him to terrible suffering again. And now she had been denied even a choice to join him in death.

_EVE_ . . . she now heard a deep, glacial, but familiar voice address her in _Axiom_. Amazingly, Typing-bot was now apparently free of his cables, at her side.

_You are giving up too soon . . ._ he said to her slowly, but getting right to the point.

_HOW?!?_ EVE angrily asked Typing-bot in _Axiom_, while whipping her head around in his direction. She started to unleash an angry torrent of staccato beeps and tones towards him.

_How __**DARE**__ you say I'm giving up too soon!! _she screamed in beeps at him while still sobbing._ I let him suffer too long, trying to keep him with me! It was my fault . . . HIS SUFFERING WAS MY FAULT!! I HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO LET HIM GO . . . TO SHUT HIM OFF!!_

_**IT WAS THE HARDEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE!!!**_ EVE screamed with all her might in _Axiom_ before collapsing into convulsing sobs again.

EVE detected most of the humans and robots moving back at her surprising expression of angry despair. Except for Mary. EVE detected Mary was still holding her hand, keeping her grounded, no matter what.

Seeming to ignore EVE's anger, Typing-bot simply replied, _WALL•E Class_ _System Reset Protocol._

That stopped EVE cold, as her systems accessed her own vast knowledge of the Waste Allocation Load-Lifter • Earth Class robots. They now scanned several archival references she had once skipped over in haste looking for other topics, but had saved internally.

_WALL•E Class System Reset Protocol,_ her information retrieval subsystem began reporting to her consciousness. _A process whereby a WALL•E class robot is restarted, forcing all of its onboard system software, subroutines, and data to be verified, integrated, and rebuilt in ways that are uniquely suited to this class and its systems. Specified protocol is not intended for standard WALL•E system maintenance purposes. It is accessed by depressing and holding down the LED Override Power Button for five seconds, after the unit has been turned off using the same button._

EVE was in shock . . . _There is a way to save WALL•E?!?_ she beeped aloud, incredulously amid her grief.

_EVE, I am sorry I did not come across this previously,_ Typing-bot apologized. _I offer no excuses. Now, try . . . one more time._

EVE began groping to detect WALL•E's motionless form. Mary guided one of her fins onto the front of WALL•E's still prostrate cube. EVE extended her fingers, running them along the front panel of his she had come to know so well . . . until her fingers found the LED button.

"WALL•E . . . upright . . . please . . ." EVE softly asked those around her to position WALL•E upright for her.

She detected others moving WALL•E's body upright, as she felt his front panel change from horizontal to vertical alignment. WALL•E came to rest upright on the ground with an audible thud.

As EVE prepared herself to press the LED Override Power button on WALL•E, she reached out blindly with her other fin away from him. EVE detected a reassuring pair of human hands again take hold of her searching fin.

"I'm here," Mary reassured her, "and I'm not letting go . . . until everything is alright," she added confidently.

EVE paused, readying herself for a possibility . . . a hope . . . she had given up on.

"We're here for you, EVE," she detected Captain McCrea say near her.

She depressed and held WALL•E's Override Power button.

". . . One . . . Two . . . Three . . . Four . . ." EVE counted.

". . . Five." EVE said as she let go of the button.

EVE could hear WALL•E's form automatically cubing up into itself. She could hear him start to beep, rhythmically.

EVE could detect Mary tightening her grip on EVE's hand, while Mary now embraced EVE with her other arm. "It'll be alright, EVE," she heard Mary say.

EVE kept hearing that rhythmic beeping sound from WALL•E.

Even though EVE's internal chronometer kept running, time now seemed to stand still for her. Seconds had never seemed to take such an eternity before.

"WALL•E?" EVE asked out loud.

"Not yet, EVE," she heard Mary respond. "We're all watching him with you," she reassured.

EVE sensed as if she would wait forever.

Then, she detected whirring noises.

"WALL•E is emerging from his cube," EVE perceived Mary tell her. "Here," Mary continued, as EVE felt Mary guide her closer to him, "Here he is, EVE, in front of you. Go ahead, touch him."

EVE sensed Mary guide one of her fins onto a top edge of WALL•E's cube. She now sensed it hum with life again. His form wasn't shaking or convulsing this time . . . but was he there, inside?

EVE could barely bring herself to speak now. "WALL•E?" she tentatively asked.

She boosted her remaining sensory systems to maximum, but she could detect no response from him — nothing except the still continuing rhythmic beeping.

"WALL•E?" she asked again.

No response.

EVE began to let her head slip downward in dejection. She had experienced this path before. She tried to lift her head back up again, but she couldn't do it.

She only detected silence from those around her . . . what she perceived to be an icy, lingering silence that suffocated the last shreds of hope left within her exhausted consciousness.

The sensations of pain, despair and hopelessness were now becoming too powerful within her for EVE to fight off yet again. She found that she just could not go through it all once more, or go any further down this same path. It just was no longer something she could bear. She had been in this exact spot, facing this exact same situation with him when it all began. Except now, she had witnesses . . . she didn't know how many . . . to her defeat this time.

EVE felt utterly beaten, broken. Cold logic now won out over hope within her. Given the primitive nature of WALL•E's systems EVE's logic subroutines reasoned, the Reset Protocol had likely wiped his two minds clean — reducing him to non-sentience again . . . rendering him a mere machine, even a vegetable. EVE no longer had it within her to deal with that again. She had no more to give. Her WALL•E, both of him, appeared to be gone, horribly absent. She just cried.

_Prepare to override commitment,_ she found herself tearfully instructing her systems. This would take several deliberate steps to complete, but EVE had no more strength or resolve left within her to follow her commitment any further. She would do what no robot has ever done — break an unbreakable directive. She had no idea what she would do after that. EVE no longer cared. She had nothing left in her now. Nothing. Her consciousness, her mind, was a bleak, exhausted void.

EVE started to move slowly in a direction she thought led away from him. She wanted nothing more than to go away . . . for everything, even herself, to just go away.

_*Bump!*_ She felt her visor collide with WALL•E's optics. A spark jumped between them, but she didn't remember consciously giving him a spark-kiss.

Then . . . EVE detected whirring again — different than before. She felt metallic fingers touching, and then wrapping around her fin. Despite EVE's almost instinctive attempt to pull her fin away, the metallic hand wasn't letting her go.

Then, in her darkness, EVE detected something . . .

"Eee-vaah?" her audio sensors passed on to her.

This time, EVE was about to pass it off as a sensory hallucination. It just didn't fit the pattern she was all too familiar with now.

"EVE, WALL•E's talking to you . . . he's looking at you," EVE detected Mary say with growing excitement.

"Eee-vaah!" she perceived a second time. The voice was more excited, it seemed to recognize her.

This time, EVE felt she was the one who needed to be rescued, to be saved. She felt mired in darkness and despair — no longer knowing what was real versus what was illusion. She didn't know how to get back, how to climb out of the dark abyss she felt herself in.

"Eee-vaah . . . WALL•E . . . " she heard him say.

_Him . . . HIM! . . . WALL•E!!_ it began to dawn on her. His voice was clear, strong . . . unified!!

"Waaallll . . ." EVE tried to say, weakly. But this time, she couldn't even make her voice work.

_*Zap!*_ EVE detected. _Warning: Electrical short in visor. Visual and speech systems disabled . . ._ her diagnostic systems announced to her.

"Eee-vaah! . . . . Ohhhhhhh!" the voice EVE heard now had concern in it — concern over her.

EVE reached out blindly with her other fin. Then she felt another metallic hand take gentle but firm hold of that fin as well.

"Www . . ." _*Zap!*_ EVE tried to answer his voice, but couldn't.

EVE just started to collapse forward . . . she didn't know whether it was from exhaustion, relief, joy, or a loss of energy. She perceived herself being caught, and held up by two familiar metallic arms . . . arms that now embraced her. EVE now felt herself being gently turned 90 degrees. The metallic arms were now supporting her from underneath, as she instinctively placed a now free fin across the top of a metallic cube to steady herself.

"Fixxx . . . Eee-vaah . . ." she now detected WALL•E confidently, yet gently, say to her. She sensed a whirring of treads, turning, and horizontal movement now, accompanied by an eruption of sudden cheering and applause around her.

EVE felt she was in a growing fog in her consciousness, but she gently leaned her head in until she came into contact with WALL•E's optics again. Sensations of relief washed through her, as she just relaxed, shut down her thruster units, and allowed WALL•E to carry her full weight.

Amid the continued cheering, EVE perceived Captain McCrea offer, "WALL•E, let's put EVE on a transport to get her to the Repair Ward."

"No . . ." she detected WALL•E respond. EVE quietly marveled as she realized WALL•E was going to carry her all the way himself! He was indeed rescuing her now . . . both body and consciousness!

"WALL•E, you may not be entirely well yourself yet," she heard Captain McCrea caution.

"No . . ." EVE, to her joy, heard WALL•E repeat once again. She let her head rest against WALL•E's optics in gratitude, and love. The path was bumpy, and EVE was jarred a bit in WALL•E's arms . . . but that didn't matter to her. She allowed her consciousness to slip towards dormancy, relishing being cradled in his arms.

One last thing remained to be done though. _Cancel override of commitment,_ EVE instructed her systems. Further gentle, wonderful sensations of relief, joy, and love washed through her.

EVE now gladly allowed sleep to overtake her as WALL•E continued to carry her along. She was at long last in the arms of the WALL•E she loved.

That was all that mattered now.


	24. Chapter 24

While everything was blackness, sensations and sounds came and went in EVE's mind.

One minute, she was aware of being carried . . . being cradled by two metallic arms and hands. Despite a somewhat bumpy ride in those arms, EVE felt safe, even cared for . . . something she could not remember experiencing before.

The comforting sensations seemed to invite her to relax. When she did, everything gently faded away.

Later she slowly started to hear talking from outside her consciousness, ". . . WALL•E, you're going to have to let us move EVE up the stairs into the _Axiom_ on a transport . . ."

She detected other hands now take her away from the security of the metallic arms that had been holding her.

_No! . . . NO!!_ EVE panicked within herself. She tried moving, reaching for those arms again.

_Those arms! Where are those arms??_ she began to think to herself with increasing desperation.

EVE sensed one of her groping fins being grasped by the metallic hands she now treasured. Their simple presence and touch relieved and soothed her, quieting her fears. She ceased trying to grope and move. Then she heard a voice . . .

"Eeev-aaah . . . relaxx . . . WALL•E herre . . ." the voice warmly assured. It helped her know she was still safe . . . still cared for.

EVE sensed movement again, this time upwards. But those metallic hands were still holding one of her fins. As long as those metallic hands were touching her, she felt everything would be alright.

EVE relaxed and drifted, allowing everything to fade away again. She had no strength left in her mind to do anything else.

— — — — —

_. . . REBOOT . . ._

"Eee-vaah . . ." she heard. "Youu-hoo . . ." the voice added.

EVE found her visor coming online. She was disoriented. Things started coming into focus. She saw bright lights, and white robotic arms over her.

She turned her view to one side. A pair of optics came into view. They were angled together with a look of concern. She felt a metallic hand touch her side. EVE cautiously extended one of her fins, uncertain whether what she was seeing was real, or hallucination. She suddenly detected restraints around her. Her fin was able to extend from her side a little, but only so much. EVE began to experience worry, even fear.

Then two metallic hands gently grasped that fin. Feeling those hands once again instantly relaxed EVE.

"Eee-vaah . . ." she heard, again.

EVE blinked with disbelief.

Those optics . . . that voice . . . she had seen them die. In her foggy darkness, she had come to think the voice and arms were a perhaps wonderful dream, maybe a final comfort from her Memory systems as her own consciousness was released from life.

_Illusion . . . Memory error . . ._ EVE thought to herself, almost desperate to avoid the pain of disappointment again as she was still in the process of becoming conscious. _Discontinue security records,_ she instructed.

_Security records already offline,_ her Primary System reported back to her. _Real-time visual and other sensory input now being received,_ it added.

"WALL•E?" she questioned, beginning to dare to hope it wasn't all a cruel illusion.

"Eee-vaah . . ." the voice she loved warmly responded.

*_Tink*_ she experienced as the optics she was looking at now touched her visor, and filled her view, albeit sideways.

EVE heard and sensed that she was being released from energy bands, which had held her on what she was detecting to be a table.

Still lying horizontally, EVE's other fin now reached out to touch this being she loved, but still feared was too good to be true. Her fingers came in contact with first a pair of optics, and then the top edge of a cube. Both were solid and not illusion, her systems reported to her consciousness.

Yet hope seemed so painful to her. EVE struggled to overcome her doubt, despite the increasingly clear evidence in front of her now.

"Slowww . . ." WALL•E said to her, extending an arm around EVE as he helped her move upright from the low table in the Repair Ward's Diagnostics Lab where she now found herself. She strained to reorient herself to her surroundings. She saw several of their friends gathered around her and WALL•E.

"How? . . ." EVE asked, trying to reconcile her memories, terrible memories, of what she had been experiencing, with the seeming paradise she was perceiving now. Part of her began to wonder if this was what humans called 'death'.

"Rescue!" she heard WALL•E respond proudly.

"Rescue? . . . Me? . . ." EVE asked, still unsure and unsteady.

"Yess . . ." WALL•E assured her. While he now felt fine after his own diagnostic check-up and minor repairs had confirmed all was now well with him; EVE seemed surprisingly doubtful, even fearful to him. He began to wonder why.

He raised himself a bit higher on his treads to better support EVE from one side as she steadied herself against him.

She looked down at the hand and arm of his she was gripping and bracing herself with. EVE ran her free fin along it. Yes, it was one of those wonderful metallic arms that had cradled her and made her feel safe in her darkness.

EVE looked at WALL•E as both her hands now gripped his arm . . . for emotional as well as physical support. Her eye forms started to express sadness. She had once had so many aspirations, so many hopes and dreams of what she wanted to do together with him when she got him back. Now, EVE felt like she had been through such a harrowing ordeal that she felt emotionally empty, drained . . . like she was just surviving.

"WALL•E . . ." she said to him in a surprisingly sad, empty way. "I . . ." she couldn't finish her thought.

"Eee-vaah . . ." WALL•E said as he turned towards her and embraced her. She accepted his embrace, almost collapsing into it, as she started crying. She could no longer hold it all back — the total emotional weight, the toll, of her quest for him. EVE cried openly into WALL•E's safe arms, releasing a torrent of sadness.

"Eee-vaah?" WALL•E asked, with a note of confusion.

"It's alright, WALL•E," Mary said, stepping closer to reassure him. "She's been through a lot to bring you back. She needs your help, and your understanding, now."

WALL•E looked at Mary, and then back at his crying EVE.

"Eee-vaah," he warmly reassured her as he held her.

"WALL•E . . ." she sobbed. "I . . . try so hard . . . to save you . . ." Her crying increased as she held him tighter.

"Eee-vaah . . . savve mmeee . . ." he reassured her.

"No . . . I gave up . . ." EVE said with almost crushing dejection and self-condemnation, moving back slightly as she continued to sob.

She felt that in surrendering to despair, to hopelessness, even momentarily — that she had in some way let him down. EVE felt she had certainly betrayed her directive and commitment to him in giving up hope, even briefly. She had even almost blown them both up in self-destructive anguish, just as she was about to be given the final key to bringing him back.

EVE dropped her head in shame, feeling she had failed to carry out her commitment in full to him, as her inbuilt subroutines of dedication and completion demanded of her type. She now simply felt unworthy of him.

WALL•E looked at her. He could only see a white, perfect being — a wonderful, pleasing sight who had been his guide, his rescuer, his own pursuit originally, and his love. All his memories and impressions of her were now merged into one harmonious and perfect whole.

"Eee-vaah . . ." WALL•E said with optimism and warmth, as one of his hands gently moved in and lifted her head back up until her sad eye forms looked into his.

"Goooood . . ." she heard him say, as he looked at, and even into, her.

"WALL•E knoww. Youu . . . savve . . . mmeee." he continued, with loving assurance.

EVE looked sadly, almost disbelievingly, at him initially. But then she realized she had one more pivotal choice. She could continue clutching to now all-too-familiar subroutines and sensations of sadness, despair, and self-condemnation. They had been regular companions to EVE now through much of her quest.

Or, she could surrender . . . this time to her commitment, to WALL•E, to his unconditional opinion of her and unquestioning support for her.

EVE almost laughed to herself . . . _Hell, or Heaven?_ she thought, as her analogy subroutines painted her choice in these stark terms for her. She could cling to the hell of her self-condemnation, or accept the heaven of WALL•E's love.

EVE now made the final climb out of her despair, out of herself, as she returned tightly into his embrace. She closed her eye forms as she allowed herself to draw strength from him. This was what she wanted, what she had fought so hard for. This.

She lingered in their tight embrace, allowing her very essence to be renewed from his.

Finally moving back and taking his hands in hers, she raised her visor and looked into his optics. Her eye forms slowly changed from sad crescents. She looked at WALL•E with a mixture of warmth, sincerity and gratitude.

She had to know though . . . to be sure it was all really over.

"WALL•E . . . are you . . . together? . . . One?" she asked him.

"WALL•E . . . together. WALL•E . . . one. WALL•E . . . mmeee!!" he confirmed as they continued to hold hands.

That caused EVE to giggle. She looked at him intently, deeply. She moved in to embrace him once again intensely, now crying with joy.

EVE finally had him . . . all of him.

She relished him. She now always would.

EVE now wanted to give him all of her, forever.

"WALL•E . . ." she said looking at him as she continued to hold him, ". . . me . . . you . . . Commitment."

WALL•E looked at her, "Yess . . . Comm-itt-ment," he confirmed responding in kind, adding a nod.

They just looked at, and into, each other for a moment as they embraced; shutting out awareness of everything else around them. For a moment at last, they shared a universe of only two.

"Togetherr," WALL•E said.

"Always," EVE responded.

This felt good to her. Very good.

They sighed in unison as they rested their heads together again.

"Hey, you two," Captain McCrea interjected, having watched all this, "I think there's something I'm supposed to do here. You two are jumping the gun!"

"You know," said he added with a wry smile, "this calls for a celebration. You both deserve it."

"Tomorrow . . . please," EVE said, as she and WALL•E just turned and started leaving the Ward together hand in hand, still looking at each other.

"Tommmorrow . . ." WALL•E echoed to the Captain as he looked at EVE.

For now, they were just going home.


	25. Chapter 25

_At long last . . . and with apologies for the lengthy delays, and any suspense or uncertainty you may have been suffering . . . here is the finale to The Commitment._

_I showed part of this to a 'non-WALL•E' friend yesterday, who asked why I wrote this as a story about robots instead of humans. Aside from saying I wanted to further enjoy the world and characters that this movie created, I couldn't answer her . . . except to say that these robot characters for me, and hopefully for you, captured and brought out emotions, feelings, and qualities of the spirit that I just wasn't seeing or moved by in live-action movie human characters I've seen. It wasn't a satisfactory answer for her, and that's left me feeling a little sad and uncertain as I post this tonight. Fortunately, I had already spent over a month writing this and a follow-on two-part Bonus section to come later today on the first anniversary of WALL•E's worldwide theatrical debut, thoroughly enjoying the process of inspired creation here._

_While I'll continue to ponder and try to capture and crystalize why WALL•E and EVE, and their movie and world, are truly meaningful and moving, I hope you now enjoy the 25th chapter of The Commitment . . ._

_— Norwesterner_

* * *

EVE awoke. All she could see was dark gray in front of her. She looked sideways towards light, and saw strings of illuminated lights hung on the opposite shelves across from her. They spelled out a message . . .

_WALL•E  
+__  
EVE_

. . . it said in white lights, inside a heart outline of red lights . . .

_TOGETHER . . . ALWAYS_

. . . the message continued, spelled out also in white lights curving underneath the heart.

EVE was charmed beyond words . . . even before she realized she was laying flat on their shelf bed snuggled among her boots, inside the truck. She looked upwards to see that WALL•E was right there next to her, already awake and watching over her, softly stroking her.

"So perfect . . ." she said to him softly, ". . . thank you."

"Youu desserrve!" he responded warmly.

"Not dream . . . right?" EVE said, wanting to be sure.

"Rreal . . ." WALL•E gently assured her.

EVE looked again at her message of lights, and at him . . . simply unable to express her perfect joy.

WALL•E reached down and pushed against the floor, rocking their shelf gently.

"Relaxx . . ." he added.

EVE allowed herself to be lulled for a while. She blissfully closed her eye forms as she and WALL•E rocked together, their arms extended holding each other.

Eventually, EVE slowly reopened her eye forms and just looked up at his optics.

"Youu sleep . . . long," he responded to her.

EVE began to remember as she stared at the shelf above her . . .

Despite being released from the _Axiom's _Repair Ward, she was still feeling tired and unsteady. WALL•E quickly arranged for M-O to drive them home on a hover transport. As soon as they arrived home, he ushered her straight to their shelf bed, even without her asking. EVE had been pleasantly surprised at how attentive WALL•E suddenly was to her. But as soon as she settled among her boots, EVE faded off to sleep before she could ask him any questions . . .

EVE's attention was now brought back to the present as WALL•E continued caressing her and gently talking to her.

"Thannk youu . . . rescue mmeee," he continued, adding, "WALL•E love Eee-vaah."

"WALL•E . . ." she said, as she slowly became more alert. Relief, joy and love washed through her as she reached up with a fin to caress him.

"WALL•E . . . care for Eee-vaah," he said. "Relaxx . . ."

EVE began to gently cry for joy as they continued to caress each other.

Her joy mellowing after a moment, EVE wanted to share a few things with WALL•E.

"You . . . remember . . . us? . . . What we did?" she asked.

"WALL• E rememberr . . ." he assured her. "Plant . . . Eee-vaah . . . Space . . . Lab . . . Flying . . . Search . . . Storm . . . evverything."

"That why . . ." he continued warmly, "WALL•E . . . carre for Eee-vaah . . . My turrn . . . carre for youu!"

EVE became deeply, wonderfully moved at his simple words.

"WALL•E . . . Thank you," EVE said with joyous gratitude, "Thank you!"

WALL•E's Low Charge alarm began beeping.

"Let's go . . . outside . . . recharge," EVE offered, perceiving that WALL•E wouldn't otherwise stop attending to her.

"Okayy . . ." he responded, relieved she had suggested it. WALL•E had already resolved not to leave EVE's side or stop taking care of her for even a moment today.

"Wait . . ." he said holding up a hand, as he turned and left their shelf bed first. Immediately he turned around nearby on the floor, and offered her his hand.

"WALL•E!" EVE said warmly, charmed by his act, as she took his hand in hers and hovered sideways out of the shelf, before turning upright.

"Yourr dayy," he said as they moved towards the rear of the truck and the ramp. "Anything . . . youu want!" he added.

"Why?" EVE asked as WALL•E opened the ramp for them both, still not being used to such wonderful treatment.

WALL•E stopped beside her as they moved out on the ramp in the sunshine. He looked at her deeply, as he held her hand in his.

"Youu do . . . so mmuch . . . save mmeee," he began. "WALL•E saw . . ."

". . . Mmore than . . . cann say . . ." he continued, looking down briefly and struggling somewhat with his words. "Rememberr . . . always . . . WALL•E grateful . . . love youu . . . foreverr."

"WALL•E . . ." EVE responded as she extended a free fin to caress one of his optics. Never had she been so deeply touched and moved by his words before. She moved to embrace him.

They each became aware again of WALL•E's Low Charge alarm continuing to beep. They giggled together as they emerged from their shared embrace.

"Roof?" EVE suggested as she began to pick WALL•E up to fly him there.

"Eee-vaah . . . choose," WALL•E responded.

"Yes!" she said enthusiastically, as she proceeded to grip him tightly from behind, and flew him there the 'long' way via a few aerial rolls and loops around the city, before setting him down on the roof of their truck.

WALL•E extended a hand to EVE as he extended his solar flaps and proceeded to bask in the sunshine. They sighed together again in contentment.

Hal the cockroach finally caught up with them on the roof as well, having happily filled himself with another partial sponge cake breakfast. All felt right, to both EVE and WALL•E.

"Really you . . ." EVE said warmly to WALL•E as she gripped his hand with both of hers. She now found she still had a little trouble though, believing that her quest was now finally over, as she looked downwards for a moment.

WALL•E cut his recharge short, retracting his solar flaps and turning towards EVE, seeing that she was troubled.

"WALL•E . . . recharge," EVE reminded him, not hearing his 'full charge' chime.

"Eee-vaah . . . talk . . . share," WALL•E asked her in turn, as he compliantly turned and extended his solar flaps once again.

"Hard to believe . . . struggle over," she said openly, wanting to share her true self and thoughts with him. "Was so hard . . ." she confided, almost starting to cry again as she looked downwards.

WALL•E extended a reassuring arm around her as he recharged.

"WALL•E know . . . was there . . . with you . . ." he said in response.

EVE looked up at him.

"Thank you . . ." she said gratefully at his acknowledgement. Knowing now that WALL•E had perceived more of her struggles than she once knew was tremendously comforting to EVE.

WALL•E's 'full charge' chime finally sounded as he retracted his solar flaps and moved closer to embrace EVE. He then looked out towards the _Axiom_ in thought for a minute.

"What help . . . you know . . . it over?" he asked, wanting to help her resolve her problem, her doubts, once and for all.

EVE looked down and thought for a minute.

"You . . . me . . . everyone . . . celebrate," she finally said.

"Committ-ment . . . party . . ." he suggested, now looking at her.

"Yes . . ." she responded, looking into his optics.

EVE couldn't resist giving WALL•E another appreciative hug.

"Will protect you . . . love you . . . forever," she said to him, ". . . be with you always."

"Thank youu . . . love youu . . . always," WALL•E responded in kind as he held her.

"Tell everyone . . . celebrate us," she said.

"Captain . . ." they both said together.

EVE picked WALL•E up and off they flew.

— — — — —

After almost a week of rain, the sun was finally out again.

"I hope I have all this right," Captain McCrea said nervously, straightening his cap one more time.

_Tell him he does . . . otherwise we will never get started,_ Typing-bot beeped to PR-T, who was between himself and the Captain.

"You do, darling. You do," PR-T reassured the Captain.

PR-T was suddenly finding her secondary, but built-in ability to fluently translate between _Axiom_ and English to be much in demand . . . so much so, that she didn't really have time to fulfill her original directive of cutting hair or applying make-up anymore.

"You ready, WALL•E?" McCrea asked, looking down at him.

"Rready!" WALL•E responded, as M-O gave him final touch-ups with his brush.

WALL•E was truly cleaned up . . . but not completely refurbished. EVE had agreed that WALL•E should undergo some refurbishment back in the Engineering Lab. She encouraged him, even supervised the procedures in fact. But she had balked at his being completely overhauled to 'as new' condition.

"How Eee-vaah recognize WALL•E?" she had warmly said, not wanting him to lose quite all his characteristic rust marks and dents.

So, midway through his automated refurbishment, EVE took control of the process herself and began to carefully choose what she wanted to restore, and what she wanted left the same on him. WALL•E just happily sat and allowed her to do whatever she liked.

When EVE offered WALL•E a chance to fix her up as he liked, out of a sense of fairness more than any real need for further repairs . . . WALL•E thought EVE was already 'perrfect', and needed nothing improved on her at all. EVE was just charmed by his observation and decision. He did enjoy manually controlling a cleaning and buffing of her though . . . even tickling her silly at one point until she breathlessly asked him to please stop, pleading "Mercy!" She enjoyed it all though, too . . . especially when she brought him onto the table to join her for a final shared buffing as they just looked at each other. It all became a wonderful time of laughter, joy, and bonding for both of them.

Now, WALL•E stood, in front of the Captain, PR-T, and Typing-bot . . . having an idea of what was coming, but not quite remembering it all, aside from the parts he had practiced over and over again, in the few moments he had been alone. Within himself though, WALL•E knew he had said 'yes', even 'I do' to EVE, long before this ceremony. He now looked to the _Axiom's_ stairway, eager for his bride, his now inseparable other half, to rejoin him.

_Start first piece,_ Typing-bot now radioed to a couple of Megaphone-bots located at the top of _Axiom's_ lead staircase. He allowed himself to be pleased at the depth of his research on human ceremonial customs, as a piece of music he had found from the Third Act of an opera titled _Lohengrin_ by a composer named Richard Wagner, called the _Bridal Chorus_, began to be played.

Upon hearing this music, which Typing-bot recalled hadn't been played onboard the _Axiom_ in centuries, the assembled crowd turned to face the stairs, which was exactly the effect Typing-bot intended, at least from all the references he had seen.

Out of the shadows of the _Axiom_ and the stair canopy, EVE emerged, carrying the plant that WALL•E had originally found and given to her, still in its boot. McCrea himself had suggested they dig it back up out of the ground, for this one occasion.

As the procession music played, EVE was accompanied down the stairs by her four sister probes, who still had their painted numbers on them, as well as by BRL-A and Mary.

Having failed yet again to achieve an assigned directive in searching for WALL•E's circuit board, EVE's sister probes were happy at being given anything to do. EVE had to be careful to take time to show each of them the plant in advance though . . . even to the point of allowing each probe in turn to involuntarily grab and incubate it briefly, so that they could finally experience what it was like to achieve a directive as EVE had first experienced. EVE knew that unless this response of theirs was triggered and dealt with, she'd never make it through the ceremony with the plant in her fins!

WALL•E had his own entourage as well . . .

When he was being refurbished, EVE had once again rounded up the four extra WALL•E units she had used in her quest for him. All of them were basically complete and intact. But WALL•E just didn't feel right having them torn apart for his benefit.

"Not rright!" he decided in his now familiar way to EVE.

So EVE found more partial and derelict WALL•E units to provide parts for his refurbishment, which WALL•E acquiesced to, as he could remember having salvaged parts off the most broken of his brethren for centuries.

"What do with these?" she asked him one day, pointing to the other four WALL•E units.

"Make themm . . . like mmeee," WALL•E responded, ". . . mmaybe useful . . . and companions . . . for other Eee-vaahs . . ."

_Don't bet on it!_ EVE cynically thought though when he shared the latter idea with her. She knew both what a fluke it was that she had fallen in love with WALL•E, and how she had been won over by his unique awareness of love . . . and his persistence. EVE kept such thoughts to herself though, not wanting to spoil his idea.

So each of the other four WALL•E units was refurbished, and given its own Type 17 Processor and related upgrades, by EVE herself . . . along with being numbered 2 through 5 as EVE's sister probes had been, just to keep things straight. Being part of WALL•E's entourage was in fact their first assignment, and introduction to the world around them, and to ideas like love. With Typing-bot's assistance, EVE had ensured they were sufficiently informed and oriented for the occasion however.

WALL•E though, also didn't want to disappoint his robot friends. So V-QM, HANS, VN-GO, and M-O were invited to be part of WALL•E's entourage as well, with Hal of course once again perching on top of M-O to witness the event . . . the two having now seemed to become good friends during WALL•E's recovery and reintegration. But, despite becoming something of a shared 'mascot' within their new robot community though, Hal still showed that he remembered it was WALL•E who was providing his sponge cakes!

While PR-T was now needed to assist and translate for Typing-bot, EVE likewise invited BRL-A and Mary to be part of her entourage. John volunteered to remain in the crowd however, taking care of the children he and Mary were now raising.

All their busy preparations were finally being realized today though.

Having reached the bottom of the stairs, EVE now led her entourage through the assembled crowd, carrying the booted plant, to where WALL•E was waiting for her admiringly out on the dry plateau, next to the Captain. Despite being told where to maintain their focus, the other four WALL•Es couldn't resist looking at everything and everyone around them. It was all far too new and interesting! The other EVEs however, followed their instructions to the letter and never took their eye forms off EVE and WALL•E. They did blink periodically now though, as EVE had instructed them to.

Arriving beside her WALL•E, EVE allowed herself a moment to reflect on all that had happened, as she reached and took his hand. What had started as another search of Earth for something she hadn't found in 698 previous attempts, had ended up changing not only her directive, but her very existence. She looked down briefly at the plant they had found and rescued in her one hand, and then at his hand in her other.

"Ladies, gentlemen, and robots," Captain McCrea began, reading from the sheet Typing-bot had prepared for him into a Megaphone-bot hovering in front of him, pausing as PR-T repeated his words in _Axiom_ into her own Megaphone-bot. She could beep in _Axiom_ far faster than Typing-bot could . . . even Typing-bot admitted that practically anyone could beep _Axiom_ faster than he could. He just had far too much to think about and process to concern himself with beeping _Axiom_ at a decent rate.

"We are here today," McCrea continued, ". . . to formally celebrate our homecoming to Earth, by honoring the two beings who together brought us home, and formalizing the Commitment they have really already made to each other."

Deciding to depart from the script he had been given, McCrea continued, "But 'ya know, we are also here to celebrate achievement. Right on those steps over there a few weeks ago, I pledged on behalf of all of us that we would join with, and support EVE, in her quest to bring WALL•E back . . . and here we are!"

A first round of cheering and applause erupted from the assembled crowd.

"Since those hard few days when we almost lost WALL•E . . . first around his accident, and later after his reintegration," the Captain continued, ". . . I have never seen any two people or beings so embody love, or what it means to be in love as you have, WALL•E and EVE. You both are generous and helpful, not only towards each other, but towards all the rest of us, too. And EVE, I still can't believe you took me seriously when I happened to mention a few days ago how I'd like to experience the kind of love you had one day, and you worked with Mary to fix me up on a date!"

The crowd laughed, while the Captain shared an admiring gaze with a certain someone now blushing in the audience.

"This is the kind of incredibly wonderful, caring, and encouraging beings you and WALL•E are," McCrea continued, stifling a tear. "So it is fitting . . . very fitting . . . that you two become the first married couple among us back here on Earth, and that you two reintroduce all of us to the wonderful traditions of weddings, marriage, and commitment that we had all but forgotten about while we were in space."

Returning now to his script, McCrea continued, "So it now gives me great pleasure to ask you, WALL•E . . . do you take EVE as your wedded wife . . . to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, from this day forward, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, for so long as you both shall live?"

"I do!" WALL•E said clearly, having practiced this one phrase over and over again, once he had learned of it and how important it was.

"And do you, EVE," the Captain said to her, ". . . now take WALL•E as your wedded husband . . . and continue to do as you have already done so very well . . ."

The crowd interrupted as they cheered their recognition of EVE's depth of commitment to WALL•E, as McCrea couldn't help but pause as he shed a tear of admiration for EVE as well, and how much she had already proven to be a deeply devoted partner. WALL•E now moved to take EVE into his arms and embrace her as she closed her eye forms and embraced him back in tearful thanks for his, and everyone's, recognition of all that she had done for him.

"Thannk youu . . ." WALL•E simply said to her as he continued to hold her tightly.

EVE just broke down and audibly cried for joy as she nuzzled her visor against his optics. Most everyone else found themselves crying in joy and admiration as well as they applauded through their tears.

Then, the other EVEs and WALL•Es behind them looked across at each other, steadily. Each stretched a hand towards the other. Soon WALL•E 2 was holding hands with EVE 2, then EVE 3 with WALL•E 3 . . . and then WALL•Es and EVEs 4 and 5 as well. Each of them began to assume it was perhaps just part of the basic function of their class now to begin relating with, and perhaps caring for, a unit of the other class. The crowd began to look at this and go silent.

EVE and WALL•E emerged from their shared embrace, noticing everyone was looking behind them with a measure of astonishment and awe. EVE looked behind them herself, as she gently tapped WALL•E, encouraging him to look as well.

_Yes,_ EVE beeped in _Axiom_ to the other EVE probes. _Well done! Continue to attend and care for your . . . partner. More guidance and encouragement will be provided to you later._

"WALL•E," she said turning to him, as she tilted her head towards the robots behind them, ". . . encourage other WALL•Es."

"Yess," WALL•E said now to his kind as well. "Lovve your Eee-vaahs!"

The crowd laughed.

"I think I may have to repeat this ceremony . . . at least four more times here soon!" the Captain observed, causing the crowd to laugh, while trying now to resume with the proceedings. "Now, where were we?"

Typing-bot emitted a single beep, causing PR-T to hover up beside the Captain and point to the spot on the page where they had left off.

"Ah yes," the Captain said, recognizing where they were in the ceremony.

"EVE," he continued, looking at her, and adding his own thoughts again, ". . . none of us even needs to ask you the rest of this question, as through your actions, you have already so thoroughly answered it — and in doing so, not only fulfilled your own commitment fully, but have set an example for the rest of us that we can only hope and aspire to achieve with a partner, as you already have. But it is nonetheless a deep and profound honor for me to ask you . . . EVE, will you take WALL•E as your wedded husband . . . to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, from this day forward, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, for so long as you both shall live?"

EVE turned once again to face WALL•E, taking his other hand in hers as he once again also turned towards her.

"Wanted to say this to you . . . feared I might not get to," she said to him with a tear in her eye form.

WALL•E moved again to wordlessly hug her. EVE couldn't help but cry again as she returned his embrace. The entire crowd was silently moved once again to tears at the sight of them.

Slowly, EVE emerged from their shared embrace, saying with all the dedication and devotion she had for him, ". . . WALL•E . . . I do."

The crowd erupted with loud cheering and applause again.

The Captain, moved to tears himself, instinctively turned and hugged PR-T, eliciting a surprised "Oh my!" from her. She soon relaxed into the embrace though, gently extending some of her implements about his shoulders.

McCrea composed himself again finally, and asked, "BURN•E, would you come forward and do the honors?"

BURN•E came forward. First, he took EVE's now outstretched left hand, and proceeded to carefully weld a thin but wide gold band onto her outer finger.

Then he moved over to WALL•E, who offered him his left hand. BURN•E now likewise welded an identical gold band onto WALL•E's outer finger as well.

"Keeep finnger now . . ." WALL•E commented aloud as he now admired the gold band on his finger, knowing how his parts tended to be exchanged and replaced.

Laughter rippled through the assembled crowd.

His work done, BURN•E now moved back. As he rejoined the assembled crowd of robots at one side, he just could no longer contain his own joy over the occasion. Looking at WALL•E and EVE, BURN•E simply gave a fist-pump towards them, letting out a hearty, "Whoo-hoo!!" . . . to the amusement of the crowd.

"Now," McCrea continued, ". . . before I say the words here that complete this ceremony . . . I am going to give you one more assignment, one more directive and mission, that I will ask you to continue to fulfill for as long as you both shall live, and I will make it law that you will have no other assignments or tasks apart from this, other than those you choose to take on yourselves. WALL•E, EVE . . . I hereby ask you to continue doing what you both have already shown that you do best. I ask you to simply love . . . both each other, and all the rest of us as well. Through love, you will know at any time how to best help all of us, and continue reminding and inspiring us as to what is truly important in life. Our community could have no better guides or guardians of life, than the two of you."

The crowd roared with approval and appreciation, rising to a standing ovation as they did so.

WALL•E and EVE looked at each other for a moment as they continued to hold hands. Then they turned toward each other as they took each other's free hand as well. The crowd quieted down as everyone now just focused on WALL•E and EVE, sensing a special moment was occurring between them.

"WALL•E . . . just wanted . . . to hold . . . Eee-vaah's hand," WALL•E began. "Neverr expected . . . all this. Now . . . WALL•E want . . . Eee-vaah . . . and everyone . . . to be . . . happy."

"WALL•E," EVE responded tearfully, ". . . with you . . . I am happy . . . we all are . . . and will be, always. . . . I love you . . . we love you!"

"WALL•E . . . love you . . . too," he simply replied.

No longer able to restrain its admiration and joy, the crowd erupted into cheering and applause once again.

"With that," McCrea observed, ". . . I can think of no better moment than to proclaim WALL•E and EVE to be husband and wife. In reviving a tradition, I invite you each now to kiss your partner."

The crowd once again went silent as WALL•E stretched upwards a little on his treads towards EVE, while EVE tilted her body slightly downwards towards WALL•E. His optics and her visor touched, their lenses and eye forms closing in bliss as a bluish-white bolt of energy glowed between them for what seemed like minutes.

When they finally ended their first kiss as a married couple, EVE embraced WALL•E tightly as she spun with him in her arms upwards off the ground in joy amid the crowd's cheering once again.

She could no longer resist expressing her joy with him in her favorite way. So EVE gripped WALL•E tightly in their shared embrace, as she took off into the sky with him, tracing a vapor trail 'heart' above the crowd.

"You . . ." EVE said lovingly to WALL•E as she continued to hold him tightly in flight, ". . . I keep you . . . always now!"

"Yess!" WALL•E simply concurred.

— — — — —

Soon, they were spinning more slowly back on the ground amid a celebratory wedding reception, to their song . . . _It Only Takes a Moment_. EVE just couldn't stop herself from crying for deep joy as she danced slowly with WALL•E through the song.

WALL•E had one more surprise for EVE though in requesting this song . . .

". . . It onnnlyy, takes a mommment . . ." he sang to her using his own voice in time with the song, rather than just playing his recording of it.

It was the one phrase from the song that he had been able to learn and practice in the few moments he had alone when she wasn't around him. But it had just the effect on her he was hoping for.

"Ohh, WALL•E . . ." EVE sighed, thoroughly charmed and crying even more with joy.

"For youu . . ." he said warmly almost crying himself as he continued to dance and spin slowly with her amid an admiring crowd.

To their shared surprise, they soon saw others, both robot and human, joining in and dancing in gentle circles with them to the slow waltz, as it was repeated a second time. EVE and WALL•E now noticed the other WALL•Es and EVEs dancing with each other as well, mimicking the couple's own dance moves.

"They learn fast," EVE observed to WALL•E.

"Showw tape . . . teach morrre," WALL•E added.

"We will," EVE assured, as she continued to dance slowly with him.

"Perfect . . ." she sighed to him. "Everything now perfect."

"Nott quite," WALL•E countered, as he now gently spun her over towards the Captain, who was now dancing with his new date.

"A . . . R . . . V . . ." WALL•E simply said to the Captain as the two couples danced near each other.

"Oh right, WALL•E," McCrea acknowledged as he now danced with his partner and guided her towards Typing-bot.

"What goes on?" EVE now queried WALL•E with a suspicious look in her eye forms.

"Youu see . . ." he replied with a smile in his voice, while the Captain seemed to be having a word with Typing-bot in the background.

"Attention everyone!" McCrea said with a smile, once the song had ended. "I'm told that it's customary for newly-weds to go away somewhere for what's called a 'honeymoon'. EVE, as we've just seen a little while ago here, while we know you can fly to many places; I've come to understand that there is one place however you cannot fly to on your own. A place where you and WALL•E were once seen to be flying together, having great fun."

Now on cue, red dots of laser light probed the ground, coming to a focus on a bare patch of plateau a safe distance away from the reception, as thunder-like sounds emanated from the sky, and an artificial sun seemed to appear and descend through some scattered clouds.

"So EVE and WALL•E," the Captain continued, ". . . allow me to present you with the ARV, the Axiom Return Vehicle!"

The ARV now descended out of the clouds and landed fairly near the reception party.

"While we may need it back sometime," McCrea added once the ARV had shut down, ". . . please use this with our blessings to enjoy a honeymoon anywhere you wish to go in space. And being aware of the admirable dedication to work and duties you both tend to exhibit, I've asked Typing-bot to pre-program the ARV to ensure that it cannot be returned to Earth for a month . . . except in an emergency."

"You have done so much for us," he continued, ". . . it's just time you had the freedom to truly enjoy yourselves, and enjoy the rewards of true love that you have each worked so hard for."

"Ohh WALL•E!" EVE said excitedly to him. "Us . . . space . . . dancing!!"

"Exxx-tinguishers!!" WALL•E added enthusiastically himself.

— — — — —

Soon EVE and WALL•E were settled inside the ARV's cockpit that had been customized just for them — with all their energy, maintenance needs, and of course a healthy supply of both fire extinguishers and thruster packs, provided for onboard.

As EVE finished strapping WALL•E safely in his slot for launch and seated herself beside him at the ARV's controls, she asked him, "Where to?"

"To lovve!" he simply said.

"You got it!" she replied with equal simplicity as she hit the ignition button.

WALL•E reached for EVE's hand as the entire rocket shook around them as it took off. EVE noted WALL•E's nervousness out of the corner of her visor, and took his hand, allowing him to grip hers tightly.

"Enjoy," she said above the roar of the rocket's engines, ". . . relax!"

It was all WALL•E could do not to scream in terror the way he had done the last time he had ridden the ARV into space. He tried to comfort himself with the thought that at least he wasn't riding on the outside of the ship this time!

Once they had passed beyond Earth orbit out into open space and settled into a gentle cruising speed, EVE released WALL•E from his slot.

"Dance . . . with me?" she invited him, holding out an extinguisher to him in her fin.

"Dance!" WALL•E readily accepted as he took the extinguisher from her, while EVE opened the cockpit's hatch into space.

Relishing his freedom from gravity now, WALL•E rocketed through the hatch into space, forcing EVE to give chase.

Soon though, she caught him and held him close as they spun tightly and corkscrewed around the ARV. They spun, chased, and danced through space, both around the ship and away from it . . . forgetting the passage of time.

At one point, long after extinguisher WALL•E had was exhausted . . . he didn't want to use them all up at once . . . EVE enthusiastically twirled him, and accidently sent him spinning off wildly by himself into space. After recovering from her own recoil effect, EVE sped off after him. As she approached, EVE had to then begin moving in sync somehow with his wild gyrations. He reached and flailed towards her with each rotation as he saw her. EVE felt sorry and resolved to apologize once she caught him. She also decided to be more careful with their space dancing!

She tried opening her chamber and catching him with her stasis beam, but it didn't have enough range, and wasn't powerful enough. Being in space, EVE knew his gyration rate wouldn't slow down. She recalled how she had to plunge in among his flailing limbs just a week ago to shut him off during his reintegration. This rescue of him now seemed little different.

EVE carefully watched WALL•E and assessed his gyrations, intending to gently collide with and catch him in a way that would do the least damage to both of them. She then zoomed downward at a ninety-degree angle, before calculating an intercept trajectory and orienting herself towards where he would be twenty seconds from now. EVE then raised her fins straight above her, and put her head down to protect her visor.

_5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . ._ she counted down to herself, _. . . 2 . . . 1 . . . engage!_

EVE now zoomed along an approach vector almost parallel to WALL•E, as she reached upwards and behind her head, anticipating making contact with him along her back.

_*Bang!*_ They collided.

She almost had him, but then he slipped out of her fins. EVE spun around, seeing that his trajectory had been altered, but his gyration rate had not been slowed significantly.

_Can't play it safe . . ._ she thought to herself.

So she just charged headlong towards him with her fins out in front of her, her fingers fully extended, and her visor exposed to him.

He contacted and then slipped out of her fingers a couple more times. Deciding she would just have to basically gently ram him to achieve sustained contact, EVE charged towards him one more time, putting her head down at the last second.

_*Bang!*_ This time EVE reached and grabbed him with all her might while maintaining thrust towards him.

She finally had him!

EVE discontinued her thrust while she reoriented him downwards in front of her, now embracing him tightly while he embraced her as well. They both inwardly knew had anything really gone wrong, they likely would not have been rescued by anyone else.

EVE didn't want her and WALL•E to become afraid of space dancing though. She emerged from their close embrace, putting one fin around his cube, as she took his hand with her other fin, and stretched it out waltz-style, as she had seen images of. Then she took him, and gently waltzed in a slower roll, back towards their ARV. WALL•E gently touched his optics to her visor, seeming to ask for a spark-kiss, which she gladly proceeded to give him.

And so they resumed dancing, both now more aware of the challenges of space, but deciding silently together not to allow their shared joy to be stopped by the risks and physics of extra-vehicular activity. WALL•E even emerged from their embrace and spun himself using his hydraulic wrist underneath one of fins while holding on tightly to her fingers, finishing with a 'ta-da' flourish! He was no longer afraid, and had complete trust in and love for her. EVE laughed to herself as her eye forms became happy crescents, as she drew him back in for another embrace and spark-kiss.

Finally, happily but thoroughly exhausted and spent after what must have been many hours later, they returned inside the ARV. WALL•E just clipped a floating restraint belt to himself, so they wouldn't bounce around inside the cabin too much as they slept.

Then he invited EVE, "Sleep . . . in mmy armms . . ."

"Always," EVE gladly accepted, ". . . always . . ."

"Sorry . . . lose you . . . out there," she apologized to him.

"Eee-vaah neverr lose mmee," he said confidently to her, ". . . everr."

"WALL•E . . ." EVE sighed with joy as she proceeded to hold him tightly and nuzzle her visor against his optics.

"Our life . . . our adventurre . . ." WALL•E said as EVE now relaxed in close against him within his comforting arms, as she kept her fins around him as well.

EVE spark-kissed him while he softly warbled and they faded off to sleep together, with neither of them closing nor cubing up this time, as she completed his thought:

". . . It's just beginning!"

_

* * *

_

_Enjoy the Bonus section ahead.  
_

_Happy First Anniversary, WALL•E . . . and all of us who love this film and its characters!_

— _Norwesterner_


	26. Bonus — Part I

**Bonus Section: WALL•E and EVE's 500th — Part I**

_Given the epilogue amid the credits of the film, WALL•E, for some time I've wondered what such a world of robots and humans might develop into. One of the main issues that the epilogue images didn't address though was communication. How might humans and robots come to live and work together — with the robots no longer just unthinking servants, but self-aware equals? How might robots become citizens and even assume positions of responsibility in a shared society with humans . . . without coming to share a common understanding, and language, among them all?_

_I've seen debates within WALL•E fandom about whether WALL•E and EVE and their kind should ever be able to communicate as we do. And I've pondered at times . . . would the change of speaking clearly and fluently take away something from these characters, and what we like, even love, about them? At the same time though, what would they want and choose if really given a choice about how they communicated, especially how they were able to talk? Would any of us choose to live and communicate as our ancestors did centuries ago . . . or would we allow new innovations to change how we talk and understand, and risk being changed ourselves?_

_So, how might WALL•E and EVE confront such questions and issues of change and communication, relating and even identity . . . as it all comes to a head for them around their 500th wedding anniversary . . ._

* * *

WALL•E sat on the open ramp of his truck. He had been there most of the day now. From this same ramp he had long watched the world around him. For his first 700 years, it had remained unchanged . . . almost precisely the same. WALL•E had grown used to that.

Since EVE and the _Axiom_ humans and robots had come into his life though some 500 years ago now, change had also come . . . sometimes at a dizzying pace to WALL•E. While he felt he had managed to regain or keep most of whom he had been before his loss of consciousness and subsequent reintegration, his surroundings were no longer the dusty tans and browns he had once known for so long.

Now, within just five centuries, most everything had been transformed around him. The city was now green and lush. Even the harbor had returned, and water now covered the land underneath the bridge where his truck had long been. The bridge was continuing to decay around and underneath their truck, but WALL•E just didn't want to leave behind the truck that had been his home since he could first remember, for more than a few years or decades at a time, or even move it from where it was.

He knew that EVE loved him too much to force him to do those things. Over time, that had gradually given him growing feelings of conflict, even guilt. Amid the seeming blizzard of constant change around him, WALL•E wanted . . . he needed . . . at least a few things to remain the same. That, it seemed, was now his problem. Trying to keep even a few things the same was slowly driving a wedge, an indefinable separation, between him and most everyone else . . . including EVE.

_Family, friends . . ._ he thought to himself as his mind wandered.

WALL•E recalled how he and EVE wound up adopting and raising the other four EVEs and WALL•Es they'd given sentience and a sense of self-determination to. Those newly aware robots had much to learn, he remembered. Returning from their honeymoon in space, EVE and he found these eight robots were getting themselves into trouble, and resisting and questioning most every directive and instruction. These robots and probes soon no longer even cooperated with others. Asked by Captain McCrea to intervene, to their own surprise, the couple discovered they were the only ones whom the other WALL•Es and EVEs respected and obeyed. EVE and WALL•E soon decided that they couldn't just leave these nascent consciousnesses to fend for themselves.

Taking in and raising these 'children' who could think for themselves was not easy, WALL•E now remembered. He was grateful though for EVE's determination to never erase, reprogram, or change by force who these robots were. Her pioneering work with these sentient robots set the stage for her to later become a leading authority in sentient robotics over subsequent decades.

Combined with her abilities as a natural coordinator and leader within the robot community, WALL•E remembered with pride how EVE eventually became a recurring Minister of Robotic Affairs, first in a number of _Axiom_ community councils that Captain McCrea and Typing-bot had started, and later in Earth planetary government administrations. She even came to play a central role in establishing recognition of robotic sentience and citizenship in their society, as well as guidelines for what became known as 'non-sentient robotic appliances and devices' . . . things ranging from Steward-bots and hover transports down to toasters, as long as the toasters didn't talk on their own . . . which a few eventually did . . . annoyingly so, incessantly offering toast. EVE saw to it that they were recognized as sentient though, and helped to find homes for these unmodifiable toasters where they could live out satisfying, productive lives . . . in appropriately isolated institutional settings. Meanwhile, the errant baker/engineer who had built them was tried and found guilty of unethical creation and manipulation of sentient beings that constituted a menace to society . . . inadvertently establishing a whole branch of case law that became known informally as the Talkie Toaster Decisions. WALL•E still didn't quite understand all that had gone on there, but EVE assured him it was all correct, or 'okay'.

Being involved in all this though was quite an achievement . . . and a change, WALL•E appreciated, for a one-time Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator. While he didn't have EVE's drive, communications abilities, or talent — WALL•E was always very proud and supportive of her, and anything she wanted to do.

WALL•E now recalled with pleasure though how EVE didn't let him lag far behind her. While his natural inclination was to go back to cubing trash in the beginning, or rather to help start processing recyclable materials for the _Axiom's_ vast fabricators to turn into new goods in support of their emerging Earth community . . . with EVE's encouragement, WALL•E found he was quite an insightful parent, helping their children to learn about life, and love, in his simple ways and words. Despite her own load of activities and responsibilities, EVE helped him to gradually begin sharing his insights with others, and WALL•E became something of a simple philosopher . . . the first in their new society. He even went on to author a number of short, electronic inspirational books with her assistance as co-author and editor. WALL•E chose to avoid speaking engagements, but his writings, even his sayings and simple poetry, sold well. He now recalled how he and EVE had jointly-written a best-seller a number of years ago, _It Only Takes a Word: Fewer Words, Richer Life_. This time, EVE convinced him to embark on a speaking tour together with her. He was amazed at how well people and robots applauded the things they had to say together . . . her in both _Axiom_ and fluent, translated English through a computer console on stage, and him through his own speaker and his still simple words.

WALL•E had to admit that his part in the whole thing though was mostly a protest against the growing adoption by sentient robots of new internal speech modules that allowed them to communicate clearly and fluently in any language they chose.

— — — — —

Even EVE had tried to convince him at first . . .

"WALL•E," she said one day to him through a console in the home they were living in at the time, after he had scolded the first of their children for having an upgraded internal speech module installed. "Many of us have been speaking just like this in _Axiom_ for centuries. Why can't we speak like this in English as well, like PR-T has always been able to? This will allow us more interaction with humans, and more equality with them. You still can't even understand _Axiom_, but you understand this! Why can't I have the opportunity to fluently express myself like this to you in English if I want to without having to interface with this console? Why won't you also allow me to hear and understand what's really going on in your own mind and consciousness? Why WALL•E?"

"Too many worrds!" he replied forcefully. "Fewer worrds . . . morre carre . . . morre meaning! . . . Human talk . . . human problems! . . . Nnot how rrobots talk!"

"No WALL•E," EVE replied via the console, ". . . it's not how **you** talk! The rest of us have, in _Axiom_ and some even in English, for a long time!"

WALL•E turned around and stormed towards the front door of their home, withdrawing his arms tightly into his cube.

"Oh WALL•E . . . I'm sorry," EVE said as she called after him, suddenly computing the implications of how he might be interpreting her words. "I . . . I didn't mean it . . . the way you might have taken those words."

"S-seee? . . . T-too m-many words . . . h-human problems!" he said, almost stuttering he was so angry and hurt.

WALL•E then slammed the front door of their home closed behind him as EVE was approaching. He smashed its electronic lock panel to ensure she couldn't open the door again too quickly to follow after him . . .

It was the biggest disagreement he had ever experienced with EVE. He shut her out for over a week after that . . . virtually hibernating in his truck instead of the ministerial home they were occupying. With the intervention and help of family and friends, WALL•E came to recognize though that this had wounded EVE deeply. Finally, after M-O had come to visit him again one day, he convinced WALL•E to come back to the house where EVE was. They found her slowly packing . . .

"Resigned from Ministry," she said, crying, as she looked at the box she was packing. "Didn't want to function alone . . . have nowhere to go . . . now . . ."

WALL•E's regret, combined with what he was seeing finally softened him. He began to feel terrible about what had happened between them.

"Eee-vaah . . ." he said gently, not knowing what else to do.

She stopped what she was doing and looked up at him.

"WALL•E . . ." was all she could say as she continued crying.

EVE's commitment, her love for him, was withering her now. Even WALL•E could see that. But she had vowed long ago, after mistakenly starting to do it once before, that she would never again consider abandoning it. WALL•E was simply awed by the degree of commitment and love he perceived to still be within her.

Almost frozen with sensations of guilt and looking at her sadly himself, WALL•E slowly extended his arms out to her.

Tentatively, they each moved toward the other. Upon reaching him, EVE finally collapsed, sobbing with relief into his arms.

"E-Eee-vaah so sorry," she sobbed to him, ". . . so very sorry . . . hurt you. Still love you . . . so much. Forgive me . . . please."

In part, it felt like the hardest thing he had ever done. Over the previous week, WALL•E had grown used to feelings of isolation, of being wronged, of perceiving he had been labeled as 'stupid', even by implication.

". . . WALL•E forgive youu . . ." he finally replied.

He knew he also had to say something else. But now WALL•E experienced sharp pains of guilt and self-condemnation, even accusing hypocrisy, from his ethical subroutines as he tried to say it . . .

"L-l-lovve youu . . . Eee-vaah," he finally stammered.

EVE could only continue sobbing with relief in his embrace. WALL•E closed his optics in pain as he let himself truly love and care for her once more. Now feeling ashamed, he deeply regretted the whole episode, and his own role in it.

"WALL•E sorry, too . . . so sorry . . ." he said as he began to cry with her.

"Wronged youu," he continued, ". . . Forgive mmee?"

"Eee-vaah forgive," she said, her crying finally diminishing. "Thank you, WALL•E . . . for asking."

"Nnot lovve . . . wrong . . . so sorry . . ." WALL•E said, almost choking on his words with remorse.

"It's all right . . . It's all right, WALL•E . . ." EVE found herself saying, to her own surprise, reassuring him as they continued holding each other tightly.

"Should not give up jobb," he finally suggested as he held her. "Get jobb back?"

"No," she replied, her crying subsiding, ". . . not now. Want to work . . . on us . . . Want us to understand . . . better . . . Eee-vaah want to write, with you . . ."

— — — — —

Her suggestion gradually turned into their shared work, _It Only Takes a Word_. Combined with her offer to move back into the truck together, despite its far more cramped confines . . . all this moved WALL•E at the apparent depth of love he saw that EVE had for him. He made it up to her though by encouraging her to accept an academic research offer . . . and the nice house that came with it.

WALL•E recognized that the advent of the upgraded internal speech module was a great advancement for robotic interaction and equality with humans. After all, even he appreciated that it was physically impossible for humans to speak clearly in _Axiom_, and almost as hard for them, let alone him, to even begin to understand it. But for WALL•E, something precious was being lost amid all those extra English words. His disagreement with EVE seemed to only confirm this now.

Nonetheless, all their children eventually had upgraded speech modules installed. Although he came to grudgingly accept their choice, with EVE's help; WALL•E still held out, steadfastly refusing to be upgraded himself. He also knew that EVE had long used external speech translators, especially in her academic and ministerial work, but over subsequent months and years, he came to be inwardly amazed at how she seemed to continue supporting his choice in keeping to a simple, minimal-word approach to talking at home after that episode.

It was experiences like this, as well as her recovery of his consciousness 500 years ago now that sometimes left a lingering sense of guilt inside WALL•E — engendering self-doubts that maybe she was now a better partner than he was . . . that just maybe, he didn't deserve her.

_Change . . ._ WALL•E thought sadly as he sighed, pausing his memories and continuing to look at the world around him. Change felt like his biggest enemy in life, and it had only seemed to speed up on him as time went by.

He began to recall with sadness how he couldn't stop their children from eventually wanting to leave home . . . and often even Earth itself . . . both to explore, and pursue their own lives and interests. He thought they would want to always remain together as a family, as a group. But as opportunities or interests called to them, EVE encouraged each of their children in turn to pursue them. WALL•E encouraged each pair of WALL•Es and EVEs though to at least stay together, always telling them, "Love . . . most important!"

WALL•E's thoughts then turned to his friends. He tried to get used to regularly losing human friends as they passed on. EVE, having lived aboard the _Axiom_ for centuries, and serving under a variety of captains, was used to this, and tried to help WALL•E to adjust to these losses. But he couldn't accept the sadness. WALL•E now inwardly cringed as he remembered one particularly bad period starting about five years ago, a period he felt he was still in. He'd lost not only Captain McCrea's descendent, Michael McCrea, as a trusted friend, but M-O as well in the same year . . . one to natural causes, and the other to an easily avoidable hover transport accident. Even just thinking of them now, WALL•E began to experience his sadness at their loss all over again.

WALL•E then began to remember the real reason he was now once again living in the truck . . . the thing that had caused him to just shut out change, the world, most everything but EVE and their family — the loss of two of their children around the same time, WALL•E 2 and EVE 2, to a re-entry accident as they were returning from space at WALL•E's own request to visit EVE and him.

After the combined weight of all that loss, WALL•E had just withdrawn from dealing with the world around him, relying on EVE to be his link to the outside world as they left their academic home, and returned once more to live in his beloved truck. Even WALL•E recognized that the move was supposed to be temporary . . . to help him, and even EVE, recover from their loss amid the comfort of long-familiar surroundings, where their love and their family began and had blossomed. But soon neither EVE nor Typing-bot seemed able to change his mind about moving back out again to their other home.

". . . Have faith, EVE," WALL•E had once heard Typing-bot counsel EVE via the console in English in their truck one day.

"I do," EVE responded also in English, while plugged into the console. "For WALL•E, I always will . . ."

WALL•E had felt extremely guilty upon hearing that exchange, even as he recognized that perhaps they meant for him to hear it. He had wanted to accept change for EVE afterwards. He tried to open up to her, and the world, once again. WALL•E had come close a number of times over the last few years, but he simply found the change, loss and sadness within and around him to be too much, and he had fallen back to shutting the world out. Even he realized though that out of her love for him, EVE had allowed him to. He once again now regretted his own stubbornness and seeming inability to cope, while admiring how EVE hadn't forced him to make changes, yet she had never left his side either.

WALL•E felt trapped though. When he would care about anything in recent times, he felt sad about everything. But when he ceased caring, or shut his empathy subroutines off, he felt numb and appeared insensitive to others. Focusing on and caring about EVE and his surviving family came to feel like all he was capable of. Dwelling on anything else felt like it would just overload, or short-circuit him.

Now again instinctively doing what he had done when he felt overwhelmed, WALL•E once more turned around to face the comforting, unchanging familiarity of the truck's interior that had again been their home for almost four years now. Even EVE's bed of boots was still right where he had made it for her, half a millennia ago . . . although he had had to replace some of the boots as they had worn out or decayed over the centuries.

"Hi, Dad," he now heard a voice say behind him, disturbing his all too quiet world. But in this case, WALL•E welcomed the disturbance.

"Fourr! . . . Back!" WALL•E replied, recognizing WALL•E 4's clear but modified voice as he turned around to face him.

"Yeah, Dad . . . my wife and I are back on Earth, but just briefly," WALL•E 4 noted. "Still haven't installed an up-to-date speech module, huh?"

"WALL•E talk fine," he noted flatly.

"But you still don't speak Mom's language, and can barely communicate in English, either," WALL•E 4 responded.

"WALL•E talk fine," he repeated.

"Four!" EVE said as she now flew into the truck, returning home from a day of meetings.

"Busy!" EVE added, turning to WALL•E. "Wanted . . . in government again."

"Good . . . proud!" WALL•E simply said looking at her, knowing this would earn him a guaranteed hug from EVE.

EVE couldn't help smiling with her eye forms and squealing a little with joy as she hugged her husband.

"Hi . . . how you?" she happily said turning to WALL•E 4 while still embracing WALL•E.

"Hi, Mom! I'm good," WALL•E 4 replied. "But I was just telling Dad I see he's still refusing an installed speech module . . . even after years since the current micro ones have been out."

"We speak fine," EVE responded, lovingly defending her husband's position that she knew all too well. It was clear, even to her, that she had chosen WALL•E over principle . . . but she had grown comfortable with her choice, and the love they had.

". . . Yeah," WALL•E 4 replied, ". . . that's just what he said."

"Made a few concessions, though," EVE noted in English. "WALL•E, come to console, please."

WALL•E followed EVE over to the computer console inside their truck. She beeped at it in _Axiom_, and two cords appeared from it. She opened WALL•E's Solar Charge Display panel and plugged the cord into his data port, as she plugged the other cord into her own Universal Data Interface hidden behind a small door in her chest area.

"You know that your father and I can communicate fluently in any language we want through this," EVE now said via the console's speakers as she looked at WALL•E 4, ". . . whenever we choose to."

"Mom, that technology has been around for about as long as you two have been together," WALL•E 4 replied.

WALL•E unplugged his own connection, as he looked at WALL•E 4 and said in his own voice, "Fewer words . . . more meaning . . . more love."

"I know, Dad," WALL•E 4 said, having heard this lecture virtually throughout the five centuries of his own current consciousness. "I wouldn't presume to debate either of you on matters of meaning or love. You never let me forget how E-4 and I almost split up after we were shouting at each other through our own console many years ago . . . hurling words at each other in English because I couldn't speak _Axiom_ back then. But you and mom saved things for us through just a few choice words . . . without the console."

"Four," EVE said, still speaking fluent English through the console, so WALL•E could understand her as well, ". . . you and your father have different ways of expressing yourselves. Despite his own reservations, your father has come to allow you to choose how you wish to communicate. All he asks is that you respect his choice as well. We see you so rarely now that you and E-4 are exo-biologists together . . . which we are very happy about for you both . . . so please, let's enjoy your visit here."

"You're right, Mom," WALL•E 4 admitted. "I'm sorry, Dad . . . there's just so much at times I want to share with you, and to me, language is an important part of doing that."

"WALL•E hearr you fine," he assured. "Talk as you want . . . WALL•E listen . . . and carre."

"You do, Dad . . . you really do!" WALL•E 4 gladly admitted as he came over to embrace his father.

"Hey Four, hey Mom, hi Dad!" EVE 4 said as she now flew into the truck and joined them.

"E-4!" WALL•E and EVE each said as they greeted her with a hug.

"Sorry, I just had to say hi to a couple of friends on the way here," EVE 4 said, explaining her delayed arrival.

"So, Four," EVE 4 whispered quietly aside to WALL•E 4 as she settled next to him, ". . . are they ready for our you-know-what yet?"

"Shhhh, E-4," WALL•E 4 whispered back, trying to quiet his wife, ". . . I was just 'testing the waters' and it's still a 'no-go'."

"Oh, sorry," EVE 4 now replied out loud in a normal tone, intending for their parents to hear. "We're still stuck on the Zen 'less is more' speech thing, huh?"

"Excuse me?" EVE wondered, still speaking via the console.

"Oh, I see . . ." EVE quickly corrected herself after accessing a few databases. "Slang reference to historical Earth religion and philosophy that, among other things, prizes simplicity and de-emphasizes reliance on words . . . very appropriate! You two have really been picking up on slang and metaphors!"

"We just like communicating ideas and their nuances fully," EVE 4 replied. "We've been playing around with Earth Greek lately. Dad, you'll like this, they have five words for the various aspects of 'love' alone!"

"Only need one!" WALL•E simply replied.

EVE quietly took WALL•E's hand in hers, partly out of love, but also to forestall another family argument, using the gentle language of handholding and key words that they had agreed upon as part of recovering from their major dispute years ago.

"Love you," she said using her own voice for a moment.

"See?" WALL•E said, pointing to his wife with his free hand as he looked at the two Fours.

"Love you," EVE patiently repeated to her husband as she looked steadily at him.

"Oh," WALL•E replied as he now looked towards her, remembering their agreed upon code, ". . . lovve youu, too."

"Plug in for a moment with me, please?" EVE now said to him via the console.

"Excuse your father and I for a brief 'mind to mind' conversation here," EVE now also said via the console to the two Fours.

_WALL•E,_ EVE now said in her thoughts directly to him alone once WALL•E had plugged himself back in. _We see them so little now . . . they're obviously back for our special occasion. Please let's not go over this old topic yet again._

_You're right, _WALL•E admitted, recognizing that WALL•E 4 and EVE 4 were back for the first time in several years. He now did a rare thing, accessing the console's speech module and voice himself . . .

"I'm sorry, Four, E-4," he now said via the console. "I've just seen the use of too many words ruin things between those who care about each other, while just a few right words could bring them together . . . as we did with you two, and even between ourselves a number of years ago."

EVE 4 and WALL•E 4 now held hands as they looked at each other.

"It takes a lot of thought and caring to pick just the right words when you can only use a few," WALL•E's console voice continued. "But it doesn't take much thought at all to let too many wrong words slip out . . . and to clutter and obscure, even misrepresent, the real meaning we intend."

"Speaking like this," he added, ". . . is still uncomfortable for me. It's a big change for me in how we relate . . . and I've seen enough change . . . too much, really."

WALL•E now unplugged himself again as he continued with his own voice, pointing to himself as he looked at the two Fours, "Old fashioned . . . talk simply . . . wannt relate same . . . like beforre."

EVE unplugged herself and moved to embrace her husband.

"WALL•E," she said with her own voice. "It's okay . . . WALL•E good."

He now turned to embrace her as well, turning his optics back towards their children.

"This," he said, ". . . most important . . . of all."

"We know, Dad," EVE 4 and WALL•E 4 said practically in unison together, as they embraced each other now, too.

WALL•E reached out for the two Fours now, inviting them into a shared embrace with EVE and himself.

"Missed you two," WALL•E said. "Any news . . . of others?"

"Well, Three and E-3 are on their way back from their concert tour," EVE 4 replied. "I know you and mom still don't get their fusion of music and fractal mathematics, but it's a hit, especially with robots on space assignments. And of course the Fives are practically around the corner here on Earth with you in their robotics research work."

"The Twos," WALL•E noted with sadness.

"Yeah, dad," WALL•E 4 responded empathizing with him. "We still miss Two and E-2 as well . . . since they died in the accident four years ago."

"Lived happy . . . died together," WALL•E observed. "Neverr want to live . . . alone again . . . without my Eee-vaah."

"You never will," EVE assured WALL•E, extending a fin around him, " . . . I promise."

"Thannk youu . . ." WALL•E said gratefully to EVE as he leaned against her with his optics half closed. He wanted to say something else to her, but instead he let the moment pass.

"Mom, Dad," WALL•E 4 continued somewhat nervously, " . . . half the reason we took a break from our deep space assignment and came home was that the city government here asked us if we could try convincing you again to move out of this truck, and off this decaying bridge. You two have unique standing, and no one will force you to do anything. But ever since the harbor has once again been underneath this bridge . . . one good earthquake, or even a big storm, and you two could get fried if this all fell into the water below."

"This . . . home . . ." WALL•E said as he looked away, dropping out of their shared embrace.

"WALL•E and I talk," EVE said to them in her own voice with somewhat sad eye forms, ". . . soon . . . promise."

"Mom, Dad . . . maybe now would be a good time to talk," EVE 4 responded somewhat forcefully. "Because living in such danger says to me that maybe you do want to go . . . to stop living. And that scares me, and Four, and our brothers and sisters, too. We're trying to help you live well . . . and safely. But you haven't been letting us. We should check into our robo-hotel and rest now . . . and you two should talk . . . before it does become too late, for all of us."

EVE 4 now turned away in sadness from her parents, trying to lead a reluctant WALL•E 4 away as well. EVE hovered over in front of the two of them as they left out of the truck's ramp, and embraced both of them.

_I'm scared, too,_ she quietly confided to them in _Axiom. I'll talk with him. Then we'll all talk, as a family . . . if needed._

_We're here for you, Mom,_ EVE 4 assured, also in _Axiom, . . . and for Dad, too. We admire your patience, but he's been very stubborn about this._

_I know, _EVE admitted. _But you know my approach — never force. I've always promised your father that amount of love and respect, along with each of you._

_Mom, that approach could also get you both killed, _EVE 4 added, still in _Axiom, . . . unless he changes his mind on this. That's not right, and I'm willing to tell him that it's not love either._

_I will talk with your father, _EVE replied forcefully.

_But that's only half the reason we came back halfway across the quadrant here though, _EVE 4 continued._ Let's get this issue dealt with . . . and then have some good times, okay?_

Opening her own stasis chamber, EVE 4 reached in and handed her mother a small box with two plugs on retractable cords sticking out of it.

_I know it's early, and we know you and Dad would never accept internal speech module upgrades like Four and I have,_ EVE 4 said, . . . _but we had this made up for you two. It's a compact speech module with cords that you both can use anywhere._

_Thank you, daughter,_ EVE said. _Don't tell your father this, but I don't need it myself . . . haven't for years. I already have an internal upgraded speech module — got it during a routine check-up at the local repair centre when your father wasn't with me. I only use my old limited speech processor now, as well as the cables, around your father._

_Mom, I'm proud of you,_ EVE 4 responded, _. . . but you really shouldn't have to hide things like this from Dad._

_I know,_ EVE responded, _. . . but it's just so difficult to get your father to accept change, especially in recent decades here. My love for him, and who he is, overrides my desire to get him to accept change . . . and upgrades._

_Mom, we've all talked, and the rest of the family wants to help here,_ EVE 4 said to her as she continued to hold hands with WALL•E 4. _We want you and Dad to be both safe, and happy, as you've helped all of us to be in the past, especially Four and I. As soon as the Threes get here, let's have a real sharing time . . . like we all used to._

_We haven't all done that since before the Twos died,_ EVE admitted as she looked down.

_Then it's time, isn't it?_ EVE 4 said as she moved to hug her mother. _Who knows, it might be your best anniversary gift of all!_

_Thank you daughter!_ EVE said to EVE 4 with smiling eye forms as she held her. _We've needed you back with us . . . all of you._

_We can't stay forever, Mom, _EVE 4 cautioned,_ . . . but we'll be here to help you and Dad make a 'course correction' together . . . towards real truth and happiness again, okay?"_

EVE couldn't help but let out a squeal of delight, as she hugged her daughter tightly one more time, before letting her and WALL•E 4 go off to their robo-hotel. WALL•E could detect that something was going on among them, but as he still didn't comprehend _Axiom_, he didn't know what it was. He was content though, almost, with not knowing.

"WALL•E," EVE now said as she hovered over to him after having bid goodnight to the two Fours, "Walk . . . talk . . . tree."

— — — — —

Soon EVE was flying WALL•E to one of the few remaining links with their past . . . the tree that had grown out of the plant in the boot that WALL•E had originally found. EVE set WALL•E down in front of it on the lawn of the lush, green park that had been established around it, and held hands with him as they looked at the tree before them, and a small stone tablet set near its base . . .

_In Memory of  
Capt. B. McCrea  
2740 – 2905  
Planter of this tree, 2805  
and  
Friend of WALL•E and EVE One_

After looking at the tree and the tablet for a while, as they had done many times in the past, EVE now took the compact speech module that EVE 4 had given her out of her stasis chamber. WALL•E raised a hand to object.

"No," EVE said. "Share thoughts . . . important . . . please."

WALL•E lowered his hand, allowing EVE to open his Solar Charge Display panel and connect one cable to his data port, before she connected the other to her own.

_WALL•E,_ EVE now thought to him directly, _I have to ask . . . are you tired of life? Do you want to join our friends like Captain McCrea who have passed on?_

WALL•E remained silent in his thoughts, choosing not to share them through the module with EVE. He continued looking at the tree, as she looked at him.

_WALL•E, your silence tells me you are conflicted,_ EVE continued communicating through her own thoughts to him. _I know you don't like doing this, communicating this way. So I've mostly respected your wishes to avoid this technology, for centuries now . . . only using the console at home when I felt we needed to. WALL•E, this is one of those times though, and this small module is a gift from our children, because they care about us. You know I've sworn, of my own free choice, to be together with you always, and go wherever you do, even into death. But I need you to communicate with me now, to really share your thoughts with me. WALL•E . . . do you want to die, to end your life? Have you lived long enough now?_

"No," he said at first out loud.

_I don't know,_ he then continued openly, now sharing his thoughts with her through the module. _I see so much change. We've lost so many friends. The places here are no longer familiar to me. People don't know what to make of me . . . of us. Everyone is so distant from us._

_They are as close as you'll let them be, my love, _EVE thought to him. _You need to embrace new people, new robots, as they come into our lives, not just mourn the ones who have moved on, or gone. We need to allow others to help us. We can live anywhere we want. We have been repeatedly offered, and even lived in, homes both simple and elegant. Yet you have refused or eventually moved out of them all in favor of the truck. People give up after a while. Out of my deep and abiding love for you, I have allowed you to choose for us. But now . . . I want a choice as well. I want to live . . . safely and well . . . with you. If you want to fall with that bridge, and die in that harbor . . . I'll go with you. As I'm waterproof, I'll use my self-destruct . . . all because I love you . . . and like you, I can't image going on in life without you. I tried life on my own for a week during our disagreement years ago. In the end, I didn't want it . . . it was just too empty for me now._

_But WALL•E, _EVE continued in her thoughts to him,_ . . . I want to keep living . . . for us, for the children that we helped to create by giving them sentience and a sense of individuality and purpose, and for the world and all the people we pledged to help together 500 years ago._

EVE looked down sadly, as she continued,_ . . . I would also like us to be truly happy . . . in harmony and real openness again . . . where there are no divisions or shadows between us anymore . . . where we are one, and genuinely open and united, in our outlook on life . . . especially on how we talk, and share. I love you WALL•E, deeply, and I don't like to admit it . . . but we haven't been that way, really, for some time now._

_So I ask you,_ she concluded, looking once again at him, _. . . to please choose life . . . and happiness . . . with me; and to move to a safe and loving home, with me. We can bring the truck with us . . . keep it, even live in it if you want. But please, living on that bridge scares me now. I've scanned it and seen cracks growing in it. Please choose this, out of love for me, if nothing else._

WALL•E paused for a moment, staring blankly down at the ground at the base of the tree.

_I feel sad, _he thought to her, _. . . overwhelmed by all that has changed, all those I've cared about that we've lost._

_I know,_ she responded in thought to him.

_You know?_ he thought back to her in surprise as he looked at her.

_Yes, my love,_ EVE shared in thought simply, _. . . I do._

She didn't think anything else to him, but just looked at him, openly.

_You know . . . me . . ._ he now realized and thought, somewhat in awe, to her.

_Yes, I do . . ._ she confirmed to him in thought.

"Eee-vaah . . ." WALL•E now said out loud with his own voice in wonder as he reached out for her hand.

"WALL•E . . ." EVE replied with understanding and acceptance of him as she took his hand in hers.

WALL•E looked towards her, but was still downcast.

_I have denied you happiness at times, _WALL•E now admitted to her in thought._ I've allowed my dislike of change and my preoccupation with loss to become unhealthy directives within me_.

"Yes . . ." she simply agreed aloud.

"Forrgive?" her asked her aloud, as he unplugged himself and turned towards her.

"Forgive," she replied.

"Forrgive . . ." WALL•E said to himself as he looked off to one side of her at the grass, almost lost in wonder at the implications . . . almost amazed she would forgive him so easily, so readily.

"Directive . . . Commitment . . ." she now said, pointing to him with a finger of her free hand.

Those simple words took WALL•E right back to the beginning of his experience, his life, with her. He looked down and further away from her with a degree of shame.

"Directive? . . . Commitment?" she now asked him as she unplugged the module from herself and dropped it beside them on the grass before taking his other hand in hers.

WALL•E continued looking down, fully aware of what those sacred words between them meant, and how he had not been really living up to them, at least recently. He closed his optics tightly in pain.

"Directive? . . . Commitment?" she asked him once again.

He didn't respond.

"WALL•E," EVE said, laying a hand gently on the side of one of his optics, but not forcing him to look up at her.

"Directive? . . . Commitment?" she asked a third time.

WALL•E was still silent, frozen . . . feeling mired in sensations of shame and inadequacy.

"Hmmmmmm, hmmm, hmmm . . ." EVE started to hum a few notes of their song.

They both knew now she wasn't going to give up. Even WALL•E inwardly didn't want her to.

He began forcing himself to look up at her.

"Dirrrrective . . . Commmitment . . ." he finally confirmed, looking into her eye forms, slowly raising his arm and pointing a finger at her. He then relaxed, even collapsed, into her embrace.

WALL•E surrendered to her. Her will, her love, was stronger than his shame and inadequacy. He allowed himself to become glad that was so.

"Sorry," he continued. "Apologize . . . Want youu . . . happy . . . Movve."

This, WALL•E realized now, felt better than resisting change or dwelling on what or who had been lost . . . far better than trying to hold onto a sameness that itself almost seemed to be welcoming renewal and transformation.

"Thank you . . ." EVE said resting her head on top of WALL•E's optics as they continued to hold each other.

"Why . . . forrgive . . . mmee?" he now asked her as he emerged from their embrace to look at her. "Why . . . stay?"

"You . . ." was all EVE would say in reply to him.

WALL•E just went back to embracing her tightly, gratefully, as he closed his optics.

"Youu . . ." he now said to her.

"Us . . ." EVE concluded as she held him.

She now activated an internal comm link to EVE 4 and WALL•E 4.

"Hi mom," they both said through her speaker as they accepted her link.

"We've talked . . . and we're moving!" she communicated to them happily.

"Way to go mom!" WALL•E 4 and EVE 4 said to her together over the comm link.

"Let's gather the family, and our friends, to help," EVE continued. "We want to move the truck, and then the bridge can be safely demolished."

"Four and I just checked in with the Threes and Fives," EVE 4 replied via the link. "We'll all be ready to gather at the truck tomorrow morning, with a few more friends and resources, to get you and dad moved, okay? And then, we are going to have some great family time!"

"Thank you! Thank you both for coming home, and giving us, especially me, the push we needed," EVE said. "Mom out!"

"Youu . . . havve . . . moduule," WALL•E observed, having just heard her speak in clear English by herself without the box.

"Yes, WALL•E," EVE replied with a new, truthful resolve. "I've had an upgraded internal speech module for several years now. Because I love you and know you don't like such changes, I've hidden it from you. But I've needed it in the outside world to communicate and work with others. I'm sorry I've felt I had to conceal this from you."

"Mmee sorry," he said, looking down, ". . . forced you . . . hide that."

He slowly reached for the portable speech module on the grass. This time WALL•E started to plug himself back in again.

EVE now stopped him, almost feeling he was about to surrender something precious within him.

"Thank you, WALL•E. But you know, . . . Eee-vaah love WALL•E . . . as you are," she said, switching back to her old speech processor again, as she gently unplugged the portable speech module from him and tucked it back inside her stasis chamber as a demonstration of her love for him.

"Words precious," she continued, ". . . that's your gift . . . to us all."

"Awwwww," he realized, ". . . keep old processor . . . for mmee."

"Yes . . . kept it just for you . . . out of love," she confirmed.

"WALL•E love Eee-vaah," he said to her. "Forget . . . what that means . . . Wannted to change, for Eee-vaah . . . for some time . . ."

He broke down, burying his optics against her and crying openly at last, finally releasing years, even decades, of suppressed sadness and deep regret within him.

"WALL•E . . ." EVE said lovingly to him with her old processor, as she held and stoked him with her fin. "Thank you . . . Been waiting for this . . . openness . . . from you . . . for some time. Never wanted to force you, though."

"What . . . Eee-vaah . . . want?" WALL•E asked as he moved back a little and looked into her eye forms, now truly wanting to make amends with her.

"Love . . . joy . . . family . . . you," she simply replied.

"Want . . . upgrade . . . mmee?" he asked openly, but with hesitation.

"Not sure," she replied, still using her old speech processor. "Love who you are. You're right . . . module might change you . . . change what we have."

"Want few things . . . even onne thing . . . to stay same," he said, holding EVE and once again nuzzling his optics under her head.

"Eee-vaah know . . ." she assured as she held him. "Eee-vaah know."

_

* * *

Talking toasters and the Talkie Toaster Decisions are of course a tip of the hat to the character of the same name from the BBC's classic space comedy, RED DWARF._

_Stay tuned for the concluding Part II of this Bonus section, to be posted later this evening!_

_Happy WALL•E Day!_

— _Norwesterner_


	27. Bonus — Part II

EVE and WALL•E awoke the next morning to a beeping from their console in the truck . . . but that wasn't stopping WALL•E from his first wish of the day.

"Happy anniversary, Eee-vaah!" he said warmly to her, caressing her as her eye forms opened.

"Thank you! . . . Happy anniversary, WALL•E!" EVE replied, switching unreservedly now to her upgraded speech module. "We are going to have a wonderful day, my love . . . just you see! . . . You don't mind me talking like this when I have something to share, do you?"

"No," WALL•E said gladly.

"Give box . . . please," he asked as he held out a hand.

With a smile in her eye forms, EVE opened her stasis chamber and used her blue force field to place the compact speech module right into his hand. Even though the console was still beeping at them, EVE chose to remain in their shelf bed until WALL•E had plugged the module into himself and said what was really on his mind.

"Eee-vaah," he now said through the module. "Today, we've been married 500 years. That calls for a real present. And I can't think of a bigger one than offering you the gift of change . . . of changing, even upgrading me, however you truly want. I trust you completely, and I will accept whatever upgrades, or changes of house and home, you think are best for us. I have another surprise or two, but this is my gift to you today. This is how much I love you."

"WALL•E . . ." EVE said in tearful, almost speechless, appreciation and love.

EVE took WALL•E's hand as they moved out of their shelf bed together, and she righted herself.

"WALL•E . . ." EVE said again as she took him into her arms and gently rose off the floor and spun around, embracing him.

"I love you so much," she finally said through her upgraded module, ". . . that I can't change you now. I can't do it. Only you can, for me. I want part of us to always be the same though . . . always."

"Eee-vaah love WALL•E," she said, switching back to her old processor. "Always will!"

"WALL•E love Eee-vaah," he said with his old voice before switching again, ". . . enough to be both the changing, and yet the same, husband you deserve."

"Thank you, WALL•E . . . thank you so much," EVE said switching to her upgraded module again. "That box is tempting . . . but at the same time, we do lose something amid all these extra words, don't we. We discovered this 500 years ago with the console, remember? . . . As we talked right before your reintegration. Let's talk this way sometimes, but let's also keep our old way of sharing as well."

"Give box back . . . for now . . . please," EVE said using her old processor with a smile in her eye forms.

WALL•E unplugged the box from himself, and gave it back to her as he moved to joyfully nuzzle his optics against her head and gladly embrace her.

The console still beeped for their attention with an incoming comm link.

"I'd better get that," EVE said, switching back to her upgraded module.

"Mmee should switch . . . too," WALL•E said as EVE turned to answer the console.

"Maybe we should enable you to switch back and forth like I do," EVE replied before hitting a blinking button on the console, ". . . but everyone would be surprised that the 'Zen Master' of simple speech would change like that!"

"Surprise . . . change . . . good," WALL•E responded.

That stopped EVE midstream as she was about to hit the button. She turned around and almost zoomed back to embrace WALL•E one more time.

"That open, accepting, positive attitude," she said, ". . . is the absolute best anniversary present I could ask for from you. You've been resisting, even fighting change for so long. I know you've lost so much . . . familiar places, so many friends, even two of our children. I know you've also feared that changes in how we talk might change us and how we relate. But that you are now with me, and our children, in accepting change . . . especially calling it good . . . that, WALL•E, means everything to me. I love you! . . . Now I really do have to answer this comm link, okay?"

"Love you, Eee-vaah!" WALL•E said as he released her to answer the console.

"Love you, WALL•E," EVE replied as she moved to the console and finally hit the blinking comm button.

"Hello," EVE said, seeing it was an audio-only link.

"Mom!" EVE 4 said with relief as her voice emerged on the console's speakers. "We were about to knock down the ramp next! You didn't have your internal comm system on!"

"I like to sleep in peace," EVE replied.

"We're all here outside the truck, ready to go," EVE 4 resumed. "So open up . . . 'bots and folks are waiting out here!"

"Your father's already given me a wonderful surprise this morning," EVE said to her daughter. "He's embracing change . . . everything from offering to let me choose our new home, to even accepting a speech module . . . and the incredible thing is, I'm not sure if I really want him to upgrade now!"

"Mom, that's wonderful! But open the ramp already, okay?" EVE 4 repeated insistently.

"Alright, we're coming!" EVE responded, now slightly irritated. "Allow your father and I a little break on our 500th anniversary!"

EVE ended the link, and turned to find WALL•E already in position near the ramp's lever with his arms raised, waiting for her to lift him as was their habit.

"Daughter . . . pushy!" EVE said to him with her old processor as she picked him up.

"Love her . . . anyway," WALL•E said as he pulled the lever.

"I know," EVE answered.

As the ramp lowered, before WALL•E and EVE could even turn to look, they heard a thunderous and collective, "SURPRISE! . . . HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!"

"Oh . . . my . . . word!" EVE said as she looked outside in shock, with her old speech processor still engaged.

"Whoa!" was all WALL•E could say.

Outside before them were hundreds, perhaps thousands of robots and humans. A few bravely stood on the dilapidated freeway bridge, while many more were hovering above ground and overhead. Several large hoverships even displayed banners and messages, all saying . . .

_Happy 500th Anniversary WALL•E and EVE!_

EVE hovered out with WALL•E and settled on the middle of the truck's ramp, still stunned. What was widely known as 'their song', _It Only Takes a Moment_, began playing on a number of Megaphone-bots' speakers, as cheers and applause, streamers and confetti (bio-degradable, of course), and even daytime fireworks and lasers erupted around them.

Their children were all gathered around the ramp.

"Don't worry, Mom and Dad," EVE 4 assured. "We've kept the speech-making politicians at bay . . ."

"Hey, I've had to be one at times!" EVE objected.

"Sorry, Mom. No offense intended," EVE 4 continued. "Plus, no one wanted to cater for this many 'bots and people . . . so this is the brief, big, public commemoration of your anniversary right here! But everyone agreed that one of us should say something to you . . ."

EVE 4 turned as Typing-bot now hovered forward, with PR-T at his side. Although they made for something of an odd couple, they too, had now been married for several centuries.

"EVE . . . WALL•E . . ." he said, almost as slowly in English as he would in _Axiom_, ". . . on behalf of all of us . . . I want to thank you . . . for being models of love . . . that we all have been inspired by . . . and learned from. You have both . . . fulfilled Captain McCrea's commission to you . . . in full. Just you and your family . . . are the best gifts . . . you could have ever given us."

"May you have many more anniversaries . . . yet to come," he concluded. "Thank you . . . we love you."

The assembled crowd erupted into applause.

"Thank you," EVE said with a Megaphone-bot now hovering in front of her. "Thank you, Typing-bot and everyone. Although I've become a professor, a politician and a government minister at times . . . I don't know what to say right now . . . except one thing . . ."

"WALL•E," she asked as she turned to face him and switched to her old speech processor, ". . . another 500 years . . . with you . . . please?"

"Yess!" WALL•E responded with his old voice.

The crowd erupted with cheers again upon hearing that.

WALL•E gestured to EVE in front of her stasis chamber, silently asking for the portable speech module amid the crowd's continued cheering.

When she had helped him plug it in, and he had gestured for the crowd to quiet down, he said via the box, "I've made a mistake . . ."

Everyone was surprised at hearing him speak publicly for the first time in clear English.

"I let fear," he continued, ". . . loss, and resistance to change . . . come between me and the partner I love. I still value each word I say . . . but Eee-vaah, I'm sorry . . . and I want to show you how much I love you, by apologizing this way . . . in front of everyone."

WALL•E now retracted his treads and lowered his cube to the ramp, as he unplugged the module again and laid it aside as he faced her and took her hand.

"Still have mmee . . . as yourrs?" he asked, trying his best to go down on his 'knees'.

"Yes!" she replied, ". . . forever!"

The crowd roared one more time, as she picked him up and spun around with him off the ground. WALL•E just closed his eyes and nestled his optics underneath her head as they continued to spin for a moment in the air.

Once EVE and WALL•E had settled back down on the ramp, WALL•E 5 and EVE 5 now moved forward . . . with an extra guest in their hands.

"Dad, Mom," WALL•E 5 said. "It's taken us years of experimental recovery work, and we weren't sure we would succeed. But now, we have . . . he's here, and it's really him. Mom, dad . . . here's M-O!"

"W-W-WALL•E . . . Eee-vaah!" M-O said with glee as he jumped out of WALL•E 5's hands and rushed over to greet them.

"M-O . . ." WALL•E said, crying with a mixture of joy and disbelief as he took the little robot, in a brand new shell, into his hands. EVE moved close beside WALL•E and stroked their friend with a fin as well.

"I've been upgraded with a new speech module," M-O said in a smaller, higher-pitched voice, befitting his smaller stature, ". . . b-b-b-but it's r-r-r-really me!"

"What did you say to me the day WALL•E lost his consciousness?" EVE asked, just wanting to make sure.

"R-r-r-r-r-ready . . . h-h-h-help," the new M-O recited verbatim.

"M-O . . ." EVE said warmly to him. "It's really him, WALL•E . . . that's just what he said! M–O, you have to come live with us in our new home . . . wherever that is! We're moving today, and we've missed you so much!"

"Wouldn't think of living anywhere else but with my best friends!" he happily replied. "My consciousness has been bouncing around lab computers and databanks for a while now. Being in one place, in one body again at last is great!"

"You should have contacted us," EVE said.

". . . And our children should have told us!" she added, looking somewhat sternly at WALL•E 5 and EVE 5.

"Sorry," M-O replied. "When I died in the hover transport crash, WALL•E 5 and EVE 5 convinced the robotics research centre they're with to try and bring me back. As most of my circuit boards and even chips were shattered though, recovering my consciousness, let alone my basic system, was a big challenge. The centre came to see it as a learning opportunity, but as success was not assured, everyone outside the team had to continue believing I was dead. When I started becoming myself again though, Five and E-5 began to keep me informed on how you were doing, providing me with holo-images of you and your events."

"WALL•E missed you more than any other of our lost friends, M-O," EVE told him. "We are so glad to have you back."

"Neverr lose you again . . ." WALL•E said as he continued to hold M-O in his hands.

"If I've learned one thing in all this," M-O replied, ". . . a big part of life, WALL•E, is about risk . . . and change. Don't keep me locked in a box, or restrained on a shelf. T-t-t-trrrust m-m-me! . . . And WALL•E, you still haven't accepted an internal speech module upgrade yet. I know you don't exactly like new things, but it can really help with friendships and relationships!"

"WALL•E . . . learrning . . ." he replied.

"WALL•E's been doing pretty well in those areas just as he is, M-O," EVE added in his defense. "But he's open to change . . . left it in my fins, as a matter of fact!"

"Well Mom, Dad . . . and M-O," EVE 4 interjected, ". . . I hate to break up this reunion, but there are dozens of beings that are here to move a truck, and remove a bridge hazard."

"Oh, right! I'll get packing quickly here!" EVE responded as she picked up the speech module off the ramp and tucked it away inside her again.

"No need, Mom," EVE 4 said. "Just close the ramp, move out of the way . . . and hoverships and stasis beams will do the rest! And we'd better hurry . . . Engineer-bots have told me this bridge could go at any time! They've already been directing non-hovering robots and humans off of it. Dad and our husbands are in danger here as long as they're on the bridge deck."

"Excuse me . . . M-O," WALL•E said as he placed him onto an adjacent hover transport. "Eee-vaah . . . ramp!"

EVE compliantly lifted WALL•E to close the ramp one last time at the location the truck had been at for about 1,200 years . . . give or take a century.

"Wave . . . cameras, dear," EVE said with her old processor as she noticed holo-media were covering this live as an event of historic significance.

Once the ramp was closed, EVE moved back, still carrying WALL•E in her fins.

"Okay everyone," EVE 4 said with the help of a Megaphone-bot, ". . . that's the show! Engineers and Engineer-bots are asking you to please clear the area for your own safety now. The moving of a heavy historical object, and the demolition of an unsafe structure is about to begin. Thank you again for coming, and showing your support for my mom and dad!"

EVE, WALL•E and their family now watched as a large hovership moved into position over their truck, and engaged a stasis beam that slowly lifted it with creaks and groans, as well as generous amounts of sand falling off it, up into the air and away to its new home.

"Where are we going?" EVE asked their children, now gathered around them.

"We thought you'd like a place with some room . . . and gardens, Mom!" EVE 4 replied. "Shall we all take our land-bound spouses there, Mom and sisters?"

"Hey!" WALL•E 5 objected. "I can get a thruster-pack, you know!"

"No family rivalries on our anniversary!" EVE warned her children as she tightened her grip on WALL•E. "M-O, would you follow us?"

"Already know the way," he said as he started off on the transport. "S-s-see you there!"

"I'm glad he keeps his stutter at times," EVE said to WALL•E as they watched him depart. "He just wouldn't quite be M-O without it."

"Yep!" WALL•E simply agreed in his own voice.

WALL•E's 'Low Charge' alarm started going off.

"Well, I don't think we have time for your usual leisurely recharge this morning," EVE said to him. "Mind if I give you a quick jolt again?"

"Surre!" WALL•E replied.

EVE put WALL•E down for a moment as she opened his front panels to expose his battery terminals. Then EVE touched the terminals with the two outer fingers of her left hand. Almost instantly, his Solar Charge Display and happy chime indicated he was once again fully charged.

"Glad we discovered a few hundred years ago I had the ability to do that," EVE noted to him. "It's a real time-saver sometimes . . . and much more useful than just illuminating light bulbs!"

"Yep!" WALL•E replied again as EVE closed his front panels and picked him up from behind.

"Now, will someone else who knows where we're going . . . at a slightly higher altitude than M-O . . . please lead the way?" EVE asked.

"Follow me!" EVE 4 said as she took off carrying her own husband into the sky, showing off with an initial tight corkscrew.

"Takes after youu . . ." WALL•E noted to EVE as they took off as well.

"Got that right!" she said, as she executed her own even more dramatic ascent and corkscrew climb with him, throwing in a big reverse loop for good measure, before joining in the family flying formation.

"Youu get clearance . . . for that?" WALL•E asked.

"Whoops!" EVE noted, forgetting to establish a data link with Airspace Control, which she quickly corrected, sending an apologetic text transmission as well. "Sometimes I'm still used to the skies being clear . . . and unregulated!"

"Good thing . . . you're ex-Rrobotics Mministerr!" WALL•E noted.

"And may be again," EVE replied. "But I don't want to push it!"

"Bye, bridge . . ." WALL•E said, looking back down as they flew away from it for the last time, seeing that Engineering teams of robots and humans were already beginning to swarm around it and safely dismantle and recycle the structure without disturbing the surrounding environment.

"Always have good memories . . . from there . . ." EVE said to him with her old voice. "Always have truck, too. Safe now though . . . with you."

"Yess . . ." WALL•E agreed as he now looked ahead underneath EVE.

— — — — —

Soon, the family was following the hovership downwards towards a greenbelt on the edge of the city. A mid-sized, single-level house came into view, surrounded by gardens, green fields, and small groves of freshly planted trees.

"Mom, Dad," EVE 4 proudly announced by comm link to the family, ". . . your new home!"

"Oooooo . . ." WALL•E said as he heard the comm message over EVE's speaker.

He slightly extended a hand and stroked EVE's fingers as they were gripping him.

"Eee-vaah like?" he asked her.

"Yes, WALL•E," EVE said gratefully in reply, using her old processor. "You like, too?"

"Yess!" he said.

"Eee-vaah glad!" she said.

"Most of the trees here come from the McCrea tree in town," EVE 4 continued on the comm link, ". . . but there is at least some genetic diversity among them. Plus Mom, Dad, we ordered the house big enough to put the truck inside a room all to itself, under cover so it doesn't deteriorate any more. The roof over it is transparent, so it'll still seem like you're outdoors around the truck. There's room for you, Mom, to garden, both indoors and out, and space for each of you to reflect and work . . . and you two are getting a proper bedroom with a Levi-bed that allows each of you to finally relax and lie down . . . side by side!"

"Whom do we thank for all this?" EVE asked via her comm link.

"It's mostly us," WALL•E 3 now responded on the link. "Our latest fractal fusion album just went double-palladium! E-3 and I thought about buying you two a small town to yourselves . . . but we figured this would be enough. This place has guest quarters both in the house, and nearby among the trees . . . enough for all of us anyway."

"Are you all staying tonight?" EVE asked in reply.

"Yes! . . . Absolutely! . . . You got it!" their children all chimed in via the comm.

The family all landed on a deck at the back of the house, as the hovership and its stasis beam gently moved the truck a final few metres inside the house to its place of honor.

"Ohh WALL•E!" EVE said in joy as she looked around, still gripping him tightly.

"Youu desservve it!" he said to her. "After mmeee . . . all these yearrs!"

"I deserve you! . . . And all that you are!" EVE replied lovingly to him.

WALL•E could only reach behind him and silently embrace her, as he turned his optics around to nudge her visor with his lenses closed in deep gratitude.

"Neverr let annything . . . come between us . . . again," he resolved.

"WALL•E . . . thank you . . ." EVE said, moved deeply.

"Youu . . . keep mmee . . . straight!" he requested.

"You . . . keep me straight, too," she warmly invited him as well.

— — — — —

After they all toured the house and grounds together, the family settled into a circle back on the deck as the sun began to set, holding hands as WALL•E requested through a simple gesture.

"Eee-vaah . . . box please," WALL•E said, now holding his hand out in front of her.

EVE's eye forms smiled as she opened her stasis chamber and levitated the compact speech module into his hand. She couldn't resist helping WALL•E to plug it in however.

"Family," WALL•E said, using the box. "I want to apologize . . . to all of you . . . for being as stubborn as I've been over recent years, even decades. Given what I've seen of some humans . . . if your mother was human, she might have left me by now."

"Never!" EVE said to the family, gripping his hand tightly. ". . . Even if I was human!"

"I won't," she said, as she turned to WALL•E and looked at him, ". . . ever."

WALL•E paused, looking at her for a moment.

"Eee-vaah . . . thank youu," WALL•E said in awe with his old voice as he nudged against her. "Don't knoww . . . if WALL•E deserrve that."

"Yes, you do," she simply said. "We both do."

WALL•E could only wordlessly embrace her tightly, as EVE took care not to squash the module dangling out his open data port door between them.

"Your mother," he turned to say to their family, now through the new box for her, ". . . is very special . . . very, very special."

"We know, Dad," EVE 4 said. "We're just glad you see that, too. She's treated all of us better than we've deserved at times. That's why we're all here to help both of you . . . and that's why we've given her, and you, this house. Because we know how much she's wanted it all."

"EVE," he said with the new box, calling her by her proper name, ". . . I'm sorry I haven't been . . . and done . . . all that I should have for you. I want to apologize again to you . . . even if I don't need to . . . in front of our family."

"WALL•E . . . thank you," she said with tears of gratitude and joy in her eye forms. "Now this is an anniversary present. I love you, WALL•E One. I have for 500 years now . . . and I always will . . . always."

"I love you, too, EVE One," WALL•E said. "Help me to be . . . what you deserve."

"You already are," she responded, ". . . but I'll still help you as you ask, anyway."

WALL•E turned to give EVE another brief, tight hug.

"I still have one more present for you," he added, ". . . but not yet!"

EVE smiled with her eye forms as she once again leaned against WALL•E, emitting a wonderful sigh.

_You all prefer Axiom,_ WALL•E said to the family once again, switching among languages via the module, ". . . or English?"

"English!" they all said.

"It's a warmer, more loving language," EVE 5 amplified.

"But it's not quite as romantic as Greek though," EVE 4 noted.

"The rest of us don't have that language loaded, E-4," EVE 3 objected.

"This is," . . . _kind of fun, actually!_ WALL•E said, continuing to switch between languages via the module he was holding.

"Dad! . . . English please!" EVE 4 reminded him.

"Okay," WALL•E said through the box.

"By the way," EVE 4 added, "Dad, you're not stubborn . . . well you can be at times . . . but really, you, and Mom, are an inspiration to us. You've made me want to be a better wife and partner to Four here, and enjoy the loving, romantic life that you two have. And I'm sorry, Four, for almost giving up on you."

"That was a hundred forty-six years ago," WALL•E 4 observed. "We've learned a lot more since then . . . but thank you, E-4. I hope you know I've forgiven you long ago, and I'm trying to be the best partner I can be for you as well."

"You are, Four!" EVE 4 assured, putting a fin around him and holding him tighter.

"M-O, I hope you don't mind being in the middle of this family love-fest," WALL•E said via his box as he looked down at M-O next to him.

"Having helped to bring each of you children to life . . . at least the WALL•Es" M-O said as he looked around, ". . . you all have long been my family. Five and E-5, I owe you my second life here. And WALL•E and EVE, I can't think of a home I'd want to share with anyone more than you."

"Does this mean we get to finally call you 'Uncle M-O'?" WALL•E 3 asked.

"A-a-a-absolutely!" M-O said, reviving his signature stutter.

"It's kind of funny," EVE 4 noted, ". . . how we've wound up adopting some human familial designations, as well as coming up with our own, like 'Four' and 'E-4'."

"At first," EVE replied, ". . . I numbered you all so that everyone could tell you apart from me, and your father, as well as from each other. Then as I was trying to manage and coordinate you all when we became a family, I simply needed to address you quickly at times using the fewest syllables possible, especially as the WALL•Es understood only English initially, like your father. 'W' has more syllables in English than 'WALL•E', so it just became easier to address you WALL•Es by your numbers, and to address you EVEs by adding an 'E' to avoid confusing you with your WALL•E partners. Adding human familial designations just . . . well, came to feel good, and appropriate. It helped even me recognize that we had indeed become a real family together."

"Mom," EVE 5 interjected, ". . . speaking of our family, I wound up defending us and how we've lived at a recent robotic ethics seminar. Some humans especially, said that aside from you and dad, robots who are raised in families like we were shouldn't be married to each other . . . that it's akin to incest. Five had to calm me down, and really comfort me that night."

"I heard what you did, E-5, and thought you handled it well," EVE responded, as she tapped into her own now considerable rhetorical subroutines and conclusions on this subject. "I was actually contacted about that by a news media inquiry afterwards. As I explained to them, there are no biological or reproductive issues surrounding you all getting married. You each simply began pairing up together at our wedding — before you had any real concept of what it meant, before we had even adopted you as family. Your father and I found our own lives so balanced, so good together, that we wanted this for each of you as well. So we thought we'd simply adopt and raise you as couples, right from the beginning, allowing you to develop healthy, but shared and interdependent identities with your partners. Given the inbuilt 'EVE' propensity for emotional swings that I've experienced myself, I felt you needed the balance of a calm WALL•E temperament, as I've had. I also felt that you WALL•Es needed the focus and drive of EVEs as well . . . that you all would simply live better functioning in balanced pairs. As there were few other similarly sentient robots around at the time, encouraging your continued pairing was just logical."

"As I've debated with other ethicists," EVE continued, ". . . the human taboo around sibling marriage and incest is a natural and necessary biological imperative to prevent inbreeding and genetic abnormalities among subsequent generations, which simply aren't issues among robots. There can be psychological and socialization issues among sentients like us, but I feel we've dealt with those well. Besides, each of you had already existed, and had previous lives over portions of the preceding 700 years before we all came together. So really, the matter of sibling incest doesn't even exist for us."

"Also," EVE noted, ". . . each of you, left on your own, might not have accomplished all that much, or had all that much of what we now consider to be a good life . . . given studies even I've done of robots, especially sentient ones, functioning in solitary lives. Your father and I were both prime examples of this. He was essentially first among us all to develop an advanced sentience on his own . . . over 700 years . . . but accomplished little else beyond erecting dangerously tall stacks of garbage."

"Well," she paused, reconsidering, ". . . he did learn and introduce the concept of love to me, and to all of us though, which maybe is kind of a second important achievement of his . . . So maybe he didn't need me to live a decent life of accomplishment after all!"

"Yes I did!" WALL•E shot back good-naturedly via the box, ". . . and I still do!"

"As for me, however," EVE said in contrast, looking around, ". . . I didn't really even have a life before pairing with your father, aside from some occasional acrobatic flying! I was mostly so single-minded and directive-obsessed, it's embarrassing now!"

"But look at what you've done together with your partners, just as I have with the support and encouragement of mine," EVE continued. "That each of you has become respected participants in, even leaders in your fields, is I think the clearest rebuttal of any criticisms anyone may have of our family, and how we've raised you. I haven't really told you . . . but I am so proud of all of you, and of our family. We are special. We are unique. Humans can't truly duplicate our family structure, but I would hope that they might learn from us anyway."

"Thanks, Mom," EVE 5 replied as she nudged against WALL•E 5, ". . . just hearing that makes me feel better. I do love who we are, and what we have become."

"Mministerr . . ." WALL•E noted affectionately using his old voice as he looked at EVE.

"I've always had a mind for details," EVE countered good-naturedly as she looked at him. "It's been useful at times, hasn't it?"

"Yes," WALL•E warmly admitted through the new module again as he nudged against her. "Now I can finally tell you how much I've admired you for it."

"You've been telling me that long before now . . . and long before this," she lovingly said to him, briefly touching the module he was still plugged into.

"Mom, Dad," EVE 3 now began, ". . . there was something here we weren't sure we should move to this place, but being the closest to them, I volunteered to bring this up. This being such a green and peaceful place as they liked, and you, Dad, always wanting to see the family together . . . well, we were wondering if you would like Two's and E-2's shared grave and memorial relocated to the estate here?"

"Yes, E-3," WALL•E said softly, ". . . if your mother doesn't object, I would like that very much."

"I would never object to that," EVE said, holding WALL•E's hand and stifling a tear from her eye forms. "It would be good to have them close to us . . ."

"We'll take care of the details," EVE 3 said.

"I still miss your brother and sister . . . very much," WALL•E noted. "That's been part of my problem. I haven't stopped mourning them these past few years."

"Dad," EVE 3 gently responded. "Two and E-2 were so happy together when they died. They had comm linked me en route. They said they had just enjoyed a fabulous romantic vacation together in space, their space hydroponics garden and nursery business was going well, and they were happy to be coming home to see you and mom. Plus, they transmitted another comm message just as the ship they were on was breaking up. They said to never worry about them, to not be sad for them. They were going together, just as you and mom have always said you would want to. The last image shows them lovingly spark-kissing each other, right to the end. I hope Three and I are that lucky, if death ever happens to us."

"It's okay, Dad and Mom," EVE 3 said as she hovered across the family circle and hugged them. "Two and E-2 were happy, and in love, deeply in love . . . and I know they still are."

"Thank you, E-3," WALL•E said, sniffling through his speech module.

"Yes, thank you, my daughter," EVE said, sniffling herself. "I don't think your father and I have ever seen that final message. It might be good to see it with you sometime here."

"You want to see it now?" EVE 3 asked. "I can project it onto a holo-sphere so we all can see it."

"I think it would be good for us all to see it together," EVE responded.

EVE 3 moved back beside her husband, and then, while taking his hand, she projected a spherical holo-image in the middle of the family circle.

Soon a close-up image of WALL•E 2 and EVE 2 appeared on the holo-sphere, holding each other. The image was shaking, and they were surrounded by smoke and flames amid some panicked yelling and screaming.

". . . Everyone," WALL•E 2 said, ". . . E-2 and I only have a few seconds left."

"We'll be okay, even good . . . where we're going now," EVE 2 said, ". . . we just know."

"Don't worry about us," Two continued. "We've already switched off our tactile sensors. We'll feel nothing."

"While we're naturally nervous here about this," E-2 half-joked as her eye forms looked down for a second, ". . . Two and I couldn't be happier or more in love with each other."

"Love one another," Two continued as he turned his optics to look at E-2, ". . . be happy, even for us. Don't be sad. We're together, like mom and dad would want to be in something like this."

The ship started to break up around them.

"We love you . . ." Two and E-2 said together.

They started spark-kissing, and then the image went to static, before EVE 3 turned it off.

"Two . . . E-2 . . ." WALL•E said as he looked down, before turning and briefly crying in EVE's embrace, as she cried with him. Practically everyone turned to their partner, held them, and cried a little. M-O just leaned sadly against WALL•E.

"Thank you, E-3," EVE said looking up and across the circle at her. "This was important, and very appropriate, for us to share together tonight."

"E-3," WALL•E finally said. "As you were perhaps closest to them, you think they'd have any thoughts for this anniversary gathering of ours?"

"Perhaps closest?" EVE 3 responded almost incredulously, ending her tears. "I helped them through some post-honeymoon problems they never dared share with the rest of you! E-2 got impatient with Two one day, just like most of us EVEs have with you WALL•Es in one way or another. I just flew with her out into the countryside and encouraged her to blast out her frustrations with her ion cannon a bit, and then talk it out with me. I then gently told Two how to better handle us EVEs, and things were just fine after that!"

"I never knew that about your sister!" EVE remarked.

"You think kids ever tell their parents everything?" EVE 3 asked.

"Well, no," EVE admitted, ". . . but I had hopes our family would be better than average."

"We are, Mom," EVE 5 assured, ". . . thanks to you and Dad!"

"She's right!" EVE 3 concurred. "But tapping into my memories of Two and E-2 . . . I think they'd say first, 'Happy 500th Anniversary to Mom and Dad.' Then they'd likely say to just be happy ourselves, to love and treasure what we have together, here and now . . ."

EVE 3 paused for a moment looking down, before continuing, almost as if it was no longer just her speaking, ". . . We're fine together, and we want you to be as well . . . The accident was so long ago and so far away, we barely think about it now . . . Life doesn't end. Once you're aware, sentient, you always are . . . Mom, Dad, thanks for giving us life, the life of awareness. You are parents in the truest sense of the word . . . Don't miss us. Don't be sad. Simply be glad that we were . . . that we are . . . and that we lived, and loved, with you . . ."

The family all paused in reflection.

"Wow," EVE 3 said a moment later. "I really don't quite know where that came from!"

"I think it came from a good place . . . a very good place. Thank you, E-3," EVE said thoughtfully before turning to WALL•E. "Feel better, my husband . . . of 500 years, tonight?"

"With all of you here, and including Two and E-2 in our thoughts tonight . . . yes, I do," WALL•E said. "Plus, with me getting addicted to this enhanced talking device like all of you have been . . . I think our family is in a very good place now as well. But please, let's see you all a little more often!"

"Now that you're no longer living in a truck, Dad, and actually have room for us in a nice place like this . . . you bet you'll be seeing us more often!" WALL•E 4 observed.

"Hey, we raised you all in that truck!" WALL•E objected.

". . . And it was crowded, if you'll remember," WALL•E 5 countered. "The EVEs sometimes bounced around at night like billiard balls if they didn't have their stabilizers on . . . except for Mom, of course!"

"Nothing has been more comfortable than that boot bed your dad made for me!" EVE noted.

"You just try the Levi-bed, Mom," EVE 5 assured, ". . . it's like sleeping in space! I can finally sleep as close as I want with Five every night now."

"How does your father especially, get in and out of such a bed?" EVE asked.

"You can always lift him in and out, or he can just tell it, 'bed enter' or 'bed exit'," E-5 answered, ". . . and it will levitate him with a stasis beam right into or out of bed's suspension matrix. It's why they call it the Levi-bed!"

"I'm not sure about that!" WALL•E responded. "I may be sleeping cubed up on the floor!"

"I'll protect you from harm," EVE assured, giving him a gentle, reassuring squeeze with her fin. "Give it a try . . . for me?"

"I can't refuse you there," WALL•E admitted warmly to her, ". . . I've promised now."

"Thank you, my love," EVE said gratefully to him as she moved closer and gave him a spark-kiss.

WALL•E emitted one of his trademark happy warbles through his own speaker.

"Only you can do that to me," he now said through his new speech box again.

"That's a wonderful thing," EVE said warmly to him.

"You want me to get this speech module installed . . . rather than carry it around with me?" WALL•E asked EVE.

"Dad!" several of their children responded with surprise.

"Not now, actually," EVE responded happily, to everyone's equal surprise. "I don't want you changing any more than you are right now."

"Eee-vaah . . ." WALL•E said admiringly in his old voice as he moved to gratefully embrace and nuzzle her.

"WALL•E . . ." she said to him, using her old processor as well as she continued to embrace him.

"Oh-oh . . . time to give the parents some space here!" EVE 4 announced. "The 'room' is right over there, folks . . . if you're interested!"

"Well . . . call me old-fashioned," WALL•E said using the box once again, and facing his optics to the rest of the family circle, ". . . but as we go to bed now, I would like us all to turn off these speech modules, for a moment . . . and just show one another how much we love each other . . . please."

Soon, the family was just silently moving among each other, simply exchanging looks, touches, and hugs. After unplugging and laying aside the box himself, WALL•E silently moved with EVE, hand-in-hand, embracing each of their offspring couples in turn. Eye forms and optics, arms and fins, conveyed all that each of them could possibly want to really share. WALL•E gestured to M-O, inviting him to balance on the top of his cube for a moment as together they silently bid goodnight to the rest of the family.

As the Threes, Fours, and Fives each now went off to their guest quarters, still silent and hand-in-hand or arm-in-fin, and M-O went off into the house to look for a space to now call his own . . . WALL•E and EVE looked up into the night sky together at their new home as they moved closer into each other's arms.

Moving back from EVE slightly, WALL•E opened his compartment, and took out his final surprise of the day for her.

It was a tiny bonsai tree, planted in a small, blue, boot-shaped pot.

WALL•E wanted to explain his gift, and what he intended it for, but instead he simply, wordlessly handed it to her as he looked at her.

EVE found herself filled with love and appreciation as she looked first at the little tree while she gently took it into her hand, and then at him. She let her tearful, happy eye forms express the rich flood of emotions she was experiencing.

Then for a moment as she continued holding the tree to one side, EVE looked down, her eye forms now betraying a degree of sadness.

WALL•E gently extended a hand and caressed the side of her head, conveying a silent but concerned and curious look with his optics.

EVE looked up at him sadly while opening her stasis chamber, revealing there was nothing inside . . . for him.

WALL•E knew how busy she had been. He just took her into his embrace as if she had just given him the most wonderful gift in the world anyway. He knew that really, she had . . . the gift of herself, and her love and commitment.

EVE gently cried again as he held her, feeling not only forgiven over her forgetfulness and busyness . . . but loved . . . just loved.

Laying the tiny potted tree down carefully beside her on a low patio table, she then picked up the pocket speech module, and gently tossed it aside as she tearfully, wordlessly moved closer and gave him a long spark-kiss.

WALL•E channeled all the energy he would have warbled with back into the kiss, as he closed his optics in complete bliss.

Both agreed, wordlessly, that this silent moment of theirs was sacred.

A short while later, after jointly ending their kiss, WALL•E and EVE were tempted to say something to each other, but neither wanted to break the silence . . . the magic . . . of the moment.

Looking deeply into EVE's eye forms, it was finally WALL•E who could no longer resist.

"More . . ." he simply said as he embraced EVE.

"More . . ." EVE agreed.


End file.
